Contribution:

This paper discusses the importance of epistemic humility to transforming the colonial epistemic structures that govern research at the nexus of religion and international development. Epistemic humility suggests a surrendering of limited constructs, and a willingness to take on unknowing.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

Over the past few years I have been conducting empirical research on religion and international development and, based on the testimonials of researchers and communities within these projects have been discussing how our research processes can be more morally responsible. I am curious to discuss with other researchers and practitioners the idea of epistemic humility, which I draw on from the Buddhist tradition and how this can provide a reflexive way forward for transforming the colonial episteme that governs research processes. I wish to discuss how an approach of epistemic humility is a moral responsibility when seeking to address such epistemic injustice. As Forsthoefel (2019), Walker (2018) Shilliam (2020) and others have argued taking on an epistemic humility requires surrendering, even refusing that which we 'know' but which may not 'fit' the communities we collaborate with for our research. Humility and surrender are also key virtues across many religious traditions. Such an approach also opens us up to unknowing. Unknowing, then, is a condition for more authentic knowing, and opens us up to a greater understanding of interbeing (Ling 2019).

Contribution:

I will use Pakistan as a lived experience example. of how using religion for development in the South can be a cautionary tale and a misguided approach when used by the North.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

To highlight the links between faith-based approaches and colonial methodologies in research nd learning.

Contribution:

my experience in integrating faith in MHPSS services in the Syrian context. the high need for integration, the barriers that prevented such integration so far, and the current efforts to overcome such barriers.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

I would like to share my experience with other people who are working on such a topic in humanitarian settings.

I want to learn from others and get feedback, comments, and recommendation for other cotexts. I have previously spoken in a webinar organized by WHO. and I think it was a good opportunity to talk about the challenges in the Syrian context. I think the continuation of such webinars and discussions can push toward better integration and can provide a platform for exchanging ideas.

Contribution:

i want to explore the challenges around how we can look at developing a fair, equitable and decolonised process looking at it through a faith lens to understand how to shift power, resources, and leadership to local, national, and regional levels, by building inclusive and accessible processes

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

Local communities are central agents in their own liberation, yet they continue to be marginalised in decision-making and excluded from equitable resource allocation by the international aid sector. Racist and colonial mindsets continue to permeate aid agencies and systems globally. One symptom is underestimating the capacities and expertise of local faith actors.

I want to speak on and also learn about how faith organisations can confront asymmetries of power and challenge that privilege. I want to understand how we can address issues such as a lack of acknowledgment of colonial legacies, the dominance of Western theological constructs, the marginalization of indigenous knowledge and belief, complicity in broader racist structures in aid and development, and inequity between local and international actors.

Contribution:

My contribution will focus on my experience of working for social change with faith-based and secular actors in Hackney, London. I will both share how we focused on building bridges between actors of various and no faith and what role my identity as a woman of faith played in motivating this work.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

My contribution will focus on my experience of working for social change with faith-based and secular actors in Hackney, London. I will both share how we focused on building bridges between actors of various and no faith and what role my identity as a woman of faith played in motivating this work.

Contribution:

- Explore how academic research and artistic practise combine to capture and disseminate testimony from Muslim communities in the UK - Highlight the benefits of shared knowledge for the very communities researchers work with - Examine ways of working in de-centred, collaborative, decolonised ways

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

My interest in this panel stems from the fact that I wear two hats: I am both an academic at Warwick University, with a research interest in Islam in Germany ,and I volunteer for a Birmingham based arts organisation called www.soulcityarts.com led by the renowned artist Mohammed Ali, and which I chaired from 2020-22. Over the last 10 years I have sought to bring insights from my research on Islam in Germany to the public eye in the UK. I have run educational programmes, held public lectures, and exhibitions. Most recently, though, my collaborative work with Ali and SCA has seen me engage in community building and wellbeing projects, which seek to deepen the benefits of shared knowledge for the very communities I am interested in. In my work, academic research and artistic practise combine to capture and disseminate testimony from Muslim communities, in a way that raises the civic pride of those groups and helps to intervene in wider public discourses that tend to misrepresent them. My working method, which sees me (a white academic Muslim convert) work with Ali (a British Bangladeshi Muslim artist) in a de-centred, collaborative fashion, also attempts to blur productively the ostensible divisions between community, researcher and artist, between migrant and mainstream majority, in an attempt to decolonise the work we do.

Contribution:

This presentation aims to express the collective voice of marginalized local community leaders especially in indigenous and remote settings in the global South and in particular, to demonstrate how local humanitarian action is perceived as an extension of an individual's sense of "ubuntu" or "umoja," a loose translation of collective oneness or humanity originating from an African faith-based or spiritual duty towards collective growth and sustainable development.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

A socially-constructed idea of ubuntu as a spiritual call to action in local humanitarian crises will be central in the presentation through a folktale curated and reimagined for a global audience. The story will challenge the colonial biases that sometimes direct international humanitarian response using evidence to show that local humanitarian response emerges from a spiritually-inspired communal experience. Further deconstruction of the folktale will reveal how community members respond together as part of a "higher" calling tied to a need to maintain and sustain the population's survival. Discussions will reveal how global narratives of "helplessness" distort images of local response efforts and undermine local humanitarian action. The presentation will offer different tools and approaches to form a more collaborative response between local and international actors based on shared objectives and outcomes to promote peace-building, security, and progressive development for the communities at risk of disintegration. Finally, the concept of global citizenship as a shared humanitarian identity will help to showcase how a non-hierarchical collaborative response is achievable through an open and respectful knowledge-sharing experience and exchange of diverse ideas helpful in effectively meeting different humanitarian crises.

Contribution:

My contribution aims to highlight the importance of listening dialogues as a practical method to be implemented before regionalization and localization processes. It will do this through presenting on JLI’s latest experience in conducting a series of interactive online listening dialogues in the Middle East, with local faith actors and practitioners, as a first step in the process of establishing a regional joint learning hub on monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) and faith.

Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:

Regionalization does not give local actors a voice—they already own their voice and narratives. Instead, the process amplifies local and regional voices and pressures actors from the global north to actively listen. In order to regionalize its work on research and learning, the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities is implementing practical and inclusive methods—namely listening dialogues—on local and national levels to bridge the gap between international and local perspective and provide a fair and equitable space for local discussions on evidence and research related to development, humanitarian action, and peacebuilding in each respective region.

In the “Faith-sensitive creative and decolonized research and learning” workshop, I’m interested to share a contribution on JLI’s latest experience in conducting regional listening dialogues in the Middle East as a first step in the process of establishing a regional joint learning hub on MEAL and faith in the region. The listening dialogues were conducted online for three different countries: Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. They were brought together more than 60 local faith actors and practitioners to reflect together on the state of evidence on MEAL and faith in the Middle East, identify gaps, and outline suggestions and recommendations that inform the action plan of the regional hub before it launches.

My contribution aims to highlight the importance of listening dialogues as a practical method to be implemented before regionalization and localization processes. I hope to answer these main questions:

• Why do we need listening dialogues?

• How can we organize local, inclusive, and interactive online listening dialogues?

• What is the influence of using local languages and local partnerships in regionalization?

The Middle East Listening dialogues are crucial to develop a locally-rooted and faith-sensitive understanding of MEAL as a practice in the region that goes beyond Western definitions and donors’ priorities. In order to explore how we challenge standard MEAL and research processes in the development, humanitarian response, and peacebuilding, the JLI is mobilizing listening dialogues to actively listen to and consult with local actors on the ground, so that new evidence and research can inform policy and practice with a more fair and equitable influence that prioritizes local voices and experiences.