Looking inward to better what's outward...

 

HONORS TALK SERIES

Cultural Competence vs. Cultural Humility

Wednesday, November 10

5:00 - 6:00

Room 2310 or VIA WEBEX (password is HonorsTalk5 if needed)

Speaker:  Nasim Sarvaiya, Assistant Professor, Social Science

That's quite a title, isn't it?  There's a lot to unpack in it and rather than try to do it myself - since I am often learning right along with the other attendees at the talks - I asked Nasim to explain what it meant.  This is what she said:

Cultural humility goes beyond cultural competence in that it is a tool for an increased awareness of self in order to understand the "other" by going beyond learning about other cultures and reflect on one's own history. Cultural humility requires considering the "other" as an expert in his/her own experiences. Cultural humility is more engaging so that each can discover him/herself and their own beliefs in order to become more of aware of bias, stereotypes, and judgment.

This is so very important - today and every day.  I think there's a lot we can learn from Nasim about how to be better citizens of the world and I am looking forward to the talk.  Nasim herself comes from a pretty powerful background.  When I asked her to tell me a little about herself, this is what she shared with me:

 I did not have a straight and narrow career path. When in graduate school, I aspired to work with women centering on mainly women’s issues such as domestic abuse, prenatal care, women’s health, etc. My college advisor at that time suggested “exploring” men’s issues so I did my first graduate internship at a medium security prison for men. That experience changed the course of my career path. This began my new journey capturing human service work within the criminal justice arena.   ​Through all of my positions, I learned that no one is solely his/her crime, disability, circumstance, etc. Every individual was born equal and so much of who we are is molded by our environment in context of family, culture, sub-culture, race, and ethnicity to name some factors. 

I really hope you will join us for this important talk.  With all that is going on in the world around us, we need as many tools as we can get for how to engage with those around us in thoughtful, meaningful, and healing ways.  There is no other way that we will create a world that treats everyone with equal humanity, acceptance, and respect.