Zeynep Tufekci: How the Internet has made social change easy to organize, hard to win

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Today the speed at which we spread information is so fast that a single email can launch a worldwide awareness campaign, as with the Occupy movement. Yet as techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci seeks to show, the ease of social media can actually hurt social change in the long run. From Gezi to the Arab Spring to Ukraine to Hong Kong, she shows how today’s movements can miss out on the benefits of doing things the hard (and slow) way.... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!

Bassam Tariq: The beauty and diversity of Muslim life

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Bassam Tariq is a blogger, a filmmaker, and a halal butcher — but one thread unites his work: His joy in the diversity, the humanness of our individual experiences. In this charming talk, he shares clips from his film “These Birds Walk” and images from his tour of 30 mosques in 30 days — and reminds us to consider the beautiful complexity within us all.... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!

Khadija Gbla: My mother’s strange definition of empowerment

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Khadija Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an “empowered woman.” While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumsizing her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was called “female genital mutilation.” In a candid and funny talk, she shares what it was like to make her way in a “clitoris-centric society,” and how she works to make sure other women don’t have to figure this out. (Warning: This talk contains hard-to-hear details.)... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!

Severine Autesserre: To solve mass violence, look to locals

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Severine Autesserre studies the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is in the middle of the deadliest conflict since World War II; it’s been called “the largest ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world.” The conflict seems hopelessly, unsolvably large. But her insight from decades of listening and engaging: The conflicts are often locally based. And instead of focusing on solutions that scale to a national level, leaders and aid groups might be better served solving local crises before they ignite.... Read More إقرأ المزيد | Share it now!