Global Villages #51

Adam Burk:

Technology is integral to keeping and fostering that community in between events, but that opportunity to come together, be in person, put the phones down and look at each other in the eyes and say what are you passionate about? And tell me about that and connect on that level is vital and that's the real glue. The rest is kind of a reaching out for one another where we can start to get a sense. But the magic happens once we come together and we can be with one another in that space.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

I wish I could write a book on conversations. I think a conversation is the most radical thing anyone can do because a conversation is open ended and it's not about the truth. It's a medium for staying connected and being alive. The moment somebody shows up with the absolute truth, they change everything and they create a divided community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 51 Global Villages, airing for the first time on September 2, 2012 on WLOB and WPEI Radio Portland, Maine. Show segments and full shows are available on doctorisa.org Sitting in the studio with me this morning is my co host Genevieve Morgan, part of my Global Village. Hi Genevieve.

Genevieve Morgan:

Hi Lisa. Isn't it interesting that we're talking on Labor Day and it seems to take a lot of labor to create a global village?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been thinking that we are creating this global village in a small way and hopefully a bigger way as we go along and we know that it's happening, we know that the conversation is being generated us via Facebook. They send us emails, they stop us on the street. It's been a very interesting process and it's one that is so valuable. So it's interesting for us also to be speaking with Adam Burke and Anwar Majid because they're doing something similar and they've understood the challenges and also the hope that's generated and the inspiration and the difficulties. So it's helpful for us to sit amongst like minded individuals as we try to create our own Global Village. Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the University of New England. Sponsorship of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast has included for the past year a wonderful segment we call UNE Innovations. This week's UNE Innovation talks about relationships early relationships, not brain power, are the key to adult happiness. Social connection is a more important route to adult well being than academic ability. This study from the Journal of Happiness Studies tells us that positive social relationships in childhood and adolescence are key to adult well being. Associate Professor Craig Olson of Deakin University and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Australia and his colleagues tell us that academic achievement appears to have little effect on adult well being. The exploratory work is published online in the Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies. Olson and his team analyzed data for 804 people, followed up for 32 years, and explored the relative importance of early academic and social pathways to adult well being. In particular, they measured the relationship between level of family disadvantage in childhood, social connectedness in childhood, level language development in childhood, social connectedness in adolescence, academic achievement in adolescence, and well being in adulthood. The researchers found a strong pathway from child and adolescent social connectedness to adult well being that illustrates the enduring significance of positive social relationships over the lifespan to adulthood. The analysis also suggests that the social and academic pathways are not intimately related to one another and may be parallel paths requiring investments beyond development of the academic curriculum. For more information on this innovation, visit dsetorlisa.org for more information on the University of New England, visit une.edu.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

on today's Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we're speaking with Adam Burke, who's the executive director for TEDx Dirigo. Hi Adam, how are you?

Adam Burk:

Very good, thanks. And you?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Very well. I met Adam not too long ago at a TEDx event and of course I went to a TEDx event, Latitudes. I think it was maybe about a year ago. Yes, I was really impressed with what you're doing. I'm not sure everybody in the state of Maine is familiar with TEDx, so tell me what that is.

Adam Burk:

Sure. Well, I think a lot of people are familiar with the TED talks, which are 18 minutes or less and available widely online from Sir Ken Robinson, is a popular one that people see on their Facebook page or inbox. And those come out of a conference that happened in Long Beach, California and in Edinburgh, Scotland. And they've been going on for about 25 years. Starting in 2009, Ted created the TedX brand where X equals an independently organized event. And so since 2010, we've been putting on TEDx Dirigo, which focuses on main ideas we're spreading, leveraging the TED Talk format as well as the event design.

Genevieve Morgan:

Adam, tell people what TED actually stands for.

Adam Burk:

Sure. TED originally stood for technology, Entertainment and design because in 1984 when the conference was founded, Saul Wurman thought those were the fields that were shaping our future. And since then it's become more broad, so it's just commonly known as ted.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And there are fellows now. There are people that actually have made TED sort of their. In addition to you have made their TED their kind of big living. This is what they do for work.

Adam Burk:

Yeah. So the TED Fellows program has been going on for I think three years now. And it's a global program where they're bringing in people that are working on world changing ideas, from our own Alexander Petrov, who works on Working Villages International in Congo, to people working on bioarchitecture and devices that can quickly scan and determine if water is safe to drink in disaster areas.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What is the format of a TED Talk? For people who aren't familiar with TED

Adam Burk:

or TEDx, the TED Talk's founded on a rebirth of storytelling for the digital age in particular. But it's someone sharing what they're passionate about, what they know about in a very compelling way that's personal and meaningful. The TED Talk relies on visuals to some extent to accentuate what somebody's talking about. But it's a far departure from boring PowerPoint presentations that include lists of texts and people reading off the slides. It's a talk done at best, and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you have people who will do some work with the speakers themselves to have them be more comfortable and have them be able to put their point across.

Adam Burk:

Yes, that's right. In year one, we allowed speaker coaching to be an elective piece. And we found very quickly that people, despite if they were rampant public speakers, that they didn't know how to give a TED Talk. It's not something that we commonly do. So we do provide Coaching for all our speakers.

Genevieve Morgan:

I think it's important to note that these talks are truly inspiring, and some of them are actually transformational. So I can see why people would be intimidated going out and trying to do their own TED Talk.

Adam Burk:

Yes. Yeah. It's a very vulnerable place to be. It's about connecting with the audience in an authentic way. It's not just about showing, research or giving the same talk that we've become accustomed and kind of numbed out to giving. It's about giving it in a fresh way and really putting yourself out.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There was Seth Rigoletti. He was your most recent, I think, speaker coach. Is that right?

Adam Burk:

Yeah. We have a cadre of speaker coaches. Janice o' Rourke's our executive producer, and she heads up that team. And Seth Rigoletti is one of our lead coaches, as well as at least DeRosa. And this year, we also have Bridie McGreevy and John Marshall working on that team.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I only bring up Seth because he was, of course, on our show. So I've met him, and it was very interesting to have him come in and talk about breathing and being present and exactly what you're talking about. This authenticity that you really have to go deep and have that be part of what you're doing in order to not convince people, but to bring people into your story.

Adam Burk:

Yes. Yes. Seth's a dynamic coach. I got to work with him at Portland High School, where we worked with English, no, AP English students that were finishing their senior year, and watched him help them unlock what they were passionate about and how to talk about it. It was magic. It was pretty exciting stuff.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did you do this? What is your background and what drew you to bringing Ted to Maine?

Adam Burk:

My background is a zigzag path across many fields and professions, all held under the umbrella of wanting to, in my place and with others. So I've been a teacher. I've been a social worker. I'm a Maine guide, Been a carpenter, baker. You know, typical Maine trajectory with many, many different hats and fields. But all my life, I've been motivated to imagine what life could be and was, of course, very disappointed by a lot of the things that I saw in my life, whether it was the abuse of my good friend by his parents or it was the destruction of the woods down the street from my house, or just all these things that were very harmful to people I loved and places I cared about and wanted to help create a better world. Right. So Ted's a place where people like myself kind of gather that are hopeful Positive, optimistic, but also realistic and put their feet on the ground and get stuff done. It's not just about daydreaming, it's about actualizing those things while being imaginative. So TED was a community for me that I immediately resonated with. And then when the opportunity came for the TEDx program, I got involved because there's so many people that I love here in the state of Maine. And I want people to know what we're doing here in the state and connect it to not only people outside of the state, but also in the state. Because I would talk to people and they just wouldn't know that we had this incredible deep offshore wind farm in development or that the Telling Room was down on Commercial Street. And this was a powerful platform to tell Maine stories.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I think that Genevieve can relate to this because Genevieve did a lot of work with the Telling Room, still involved with the Telling Room. And it is the power of story that seems to bring people to believe, to have hope.

Genevieve Morgan:

I always say that after food, water and warmth, what do humans do in the history of man? What do they do of humanity? I should say they tell stories. So we don't think of storytelling as being a necessity, but it's actually the fourth thing that people do because it creates community. And we would be lost without community.

Adam Burk:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And so this is really about this idea of villages, which is the reason that we had you come in and talk to us today, because you're building a village in a very different way than what some people might think of. You know, you're not out there with your hammer and your nails, although you've done that before, apparently as a carpenter. But you're building a village of sort of like minded individuals.

Adam Burk:

Yeah. It's a place for authentic dialogue about things that we're passionate about. And doesn't mean that we all have to agree on a particular talk that's been on the stage. But we're open to having the conversation in a way that's not common, certainly not what's in the comments of most of the online publications. Right. So what we've been doing is creating this multidisciplinary cross sectoral village as an experiment for the past few years through TEDxDirgo. And what we've also discovered is we're part of a massive global village. I was in doha, Qatar with 750 other TEDx organizers earlier in April of this year. And it was a powerful experience to be with people that are like me, that are into organizing and bringing these communities together. But These are people that are on the ground where the ground's literally shaking, whether it's in Tunisia or Egypt or in Baghdad and elsewhere. And it's a tremendous asset now that we have as Mainers too, is that we're connected to that global village.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now you described yourself as having this zigzag path and TEDx is only or TED has only been around for 25 years. Is it interesting to you that you're doing this job that really didn't exist when you started your life?

Adam Burk:

Sure. But it also makes sense for me. I'm not surprised by it. I've always been entrepreneurial in that way that I'll just go out and create a space for myself that allows me to live within my passions and express them and help others to do so. So this just became a sturdy vehicle to do so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of the topics that you've brought in and had people speak about for TEDx Dirigo over the last how many of these have you had?

Adam Burk:

Now we've had three full day events and headed towards our fourth.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what are some of the topics and speakers that you think have been the most powerful?

Adam Burk:

Well, our talks have been seen by more than 350,000 people around the world and more than 25,000 in the state, which are good markers to me that this story spread. And of those, the ones that have spread the most are Zoe Wheel's talk on humane education and her work there to transform the education system to create a generation of solutionaries. And that's a great talk from our first year at Latitudes last year, Roger Duran's talk about his subversive plot to get everybody to grow their own food. It was wildly popular and was selected by TED to be on their homepage. We've also had Steve Wessler from the center for Preventing Hate, which is a very powerful, powerful talk that calls on us all to be courageous. And most recently we had Lynn Mickle Brown talking about her work with Spark and Hardy Girls Healthy Women and tremendous work that she and women all over the country are now doing. And Liz Neptune also gave a very powerful talk that talked very poignantly to us. The event was here in Portland and she came down essentially as a delegate from the Passamaquoddy and talked pretty frankly with us about perceptions that we may hold about some of the initiatives that have happened up there and what it's actually about for them. And so that was a powerful bridging of villages.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

These are all available where for people who'd like to go back and listen to them.

Adam Burk:

They're all on TedxDirgo.com and you can click on Presenters on the top and all the talks are available there as well as YouTube and you can like us on Facebook and find us that way too.

Genevieve Morgan:

We've interviewed Les Otten on our show and one of the theories that he brings up is this theory of disruptive thinking that when you introduce an idea that changes people's perspectives, you can cause real change, real transformation. How do you choose the speakers and how do they get to that point where they're the ones who present the idea or the philosophy?

Adam Burk:

Sure. Well, we go through a pretty exhaustive process to get to our program and that's we generate a list of over 200 people at any given time that we're whittling down to 16 for a program that we've curated around a common theme like VILL this fall. So those nominations come in from people nominating themselves or somebody else. Via our website, we're always generating our own lists of who's out there via media, via conversations with industry leaders and asking for their short lists. And then we have also started holding tryouts where people who register first get a chance to stand up in front of a live audience and give it a go. In terms of how people get to that point is different as the individual. So it's informed by people's life experiences. It's things they just kind of fell into, whether it was through work or life. And it's always something that clicked with them in a very deep way that this is what their life's about and this is what they're going to do. And then the quality of their talking isn't so much a qualifier, it's more the quality of the idea and the possible impact or its relevance at a particular point in time. Because again, we do work with coaches that help people give the talk of their life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How were you able to hone your own idea of authentic living? You know, what was the process that you went through? Because it does again, you have this zigzag path, but I know you also have an education background, so were there steps you took in your own life?

Adam Burk:

Yes. So it's been decades long process at the very least. That started when I was 18 and I moved from New Jersey to Boston and I was going to Boston University and studying psychology, which was one of my first loves, and at the same time just bumping into myself and cognitive dissonance between who I wanted to be, between truths that I was discovering around the world. I started learning about Buddhism and started practicing meditation and just had particular experiences that really awakened me to some things that I think are well described by Eastern philosophy. And so that severely disrupted my worldview and things that I thought were important. And so that really started me down that path. And then it was again about how what I was able to do as I put life together, what experiences were offered to me, and again, just staying true to certain principles within my own life, always trying to be humble and to serve the greater good are just two simple things that I live by. And those just unfolded. And my graduate degree in education was a synthesizing moment as I studied education as a broad field. My love of learning had persisted despite my formal schooling. So I was really interested in what else was available and studied things from Waldorf to Montessori to Reggiomelia to free schooling to what was happening in various charter schools around the country. And through that I wrote a thesis that was called Holistic Connections between Ecology and Character, which really brought together two strains of thought that inform who I am as a person. And one is ecology. And that's part of my background as a wilderness guide and Naturalist and also character development, which is rooted heavily in Eastern philosophy, and seeing that these two things were essentially part of and an extension of each other. And so within that framework is how I now can walk out into the world and feel like a whole person instead of someone that's fragmented by that zigzag path. That didn't always make sense to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It actually kind of harkens back a little bit to Thoreau, except that he kind of went out into the wilderness and really never came back. You've kind of gone out into the wilderness and come back and are really attempting to live this authentic life that you've described.

Adam Burk:

Yes, I'm trying very hard.

Genevieve Morgan:

Do you see a synergy between technology, entertainment and design, which is a very broad platform? What you're talking about is deep. It's going in. And I think, if I'm correct, because I've been to TEDx and I've talked with you before, you're really trying to get people to look inside as well as connect externally. How do you see that working as we move into the next decade?

Adam Burk:

Yeah, it's an interesting question that I pose to myself because I'm actually quite a digital native, which is interesting because I'm just as comfortable being out poking through the woods, looking through mushrooms as I am being pretty prolific on social media. So what I'm finding through the TEDx event and the global community as a whole is that technology is integral to keeping and fostering that community in between events. But that opportunity to come together, be in person, put the phones down, and look at each other in the eyes and say, what are you passionate about? And tell me about that, and connect on that level is vital, and that's the real glue. The rest is kind of a reaching out for one another where we can start to get a sense. But the magic happens once we come together and we can be with one another in that space.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You did something, I think, that just ended very recently, where you did this whole farm to school project. And it's kind of similar where you're kind of reaching deep and digging into the soil and connecting to something very tangible. But I also understand that you involved technology and connections, and it wasn't just one school. Can you just describe that for people who are listening?

Adam Burk:

Yes, sure. For two years, I worked on a federal grant project that was targeting obesity prevention. And we were working with 12 schools across two districts in southern Maine. And our strategy was to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. And my passion was the farm to school element of that so I did a lot of work connecting cafeterias to local farmers to working through distributors, as well as retraining cafeteria staff and bringing in the folks that were the reality behind the reality for Jamie Oliver's food revolution in West Virginia. And they did a boot camp for all the food service folks in two districts. It was a pretty magical time. And it was cool to see people get empowered around that. We can be creative and we can do this. It doesn't have to be what we've been doing, which again, is the spirit of TEDx, is that, oh, we can do it differently. So that we created this distributed network of people across those schools as well as elsewhere in the state. So people commonly empowered each other to keep going and then created feedback loops with the students so that re encouraged people to also keep putting better food on the plates.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I imagine that this can't have all been easy. I mean, you're talking about generating hope and living authentically and you're working with the digital technology, but also sort of back to the earth. I mean, what are some of the challenges that you've encountered personally and within the umbrella under the umbrella of TEDx?

Adam Burk:

Yeah, challenges have been busyness and managing myself, my commitments, being realistic about what I can change for myself, first and foremost, and then secondly, what I might be able to change outside of myself. Maintaining balance is the fundamental challenge. So I'm constantly working on that, making sure I have time to play, making sure I have time to be with my family, as well as do the hard work that needs to be done if we want to turn the corner.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are there people in Maine or elsewhere that have been particularly influential or supportive as you've gone forward on this path?

Adam Burk:

Yeah, I couldn't possibly name everybody. I mean, I've been deeply influenced by my mentor, Wolf Richards, who I first met when I landed in Bridgeton, Maine. And then as we pulled tedx Diego together, I mean, the support that we've received from people internally who helped put on the event. It's all run by volunteers that put in over 2000 hours per event to make it happen to our partners like Maine Magazine or the foundations, Quimby Family Foundation, Lerner foundation, other businesses, other individuals that just really see this as being vital and important and have helped us since day one.

Genevieve Morgan:

How do people attend TEDx?

Adam Burk:

You can attend TEDx by requesting an invitation, and you can do that online@tedxtirgo.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm very interested in the fact that it's a cross section of ages. That's what I've noticed having gone to TEDx, having gone to some of the the before and after type events. But I do notice a preponderance of what I would call young people. I still like to put myself in that category. But I know that you're young and Gil from Frontier, he's pretty young. He's up there doing this stuff. Do you feel like you're sort of moving your generation forward in a positive way? Is this important to you that you know, the seventh generation idea?

Adam Burk:

Yeah, it's vital to me. Well, I did hear after Latitudes that it was one of the most engaged, multi generational communities that some attendees had seen that was like outside of a school. So that was important for me to hear. And I see tedx Dirigo as being part of what is a beacon for folks my age and younger even to help reverse the brain drain that we talk about in Maine, that it does talk about these really exciting things that are meaningful to people. People of younger generations, they can see that it's happening, they can connect to it in a visceral way and they can get involved. So yeah, that's a vital part of this experience to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It can't always be easy to maintain hope. Do you ever feel yourself getting discouraged?

Adam Burk:

Sure, if I read the news too much. And that's what I also try to maintain is my media diet. And I do get discouraged. It could be when I see behaviors and it can be stupid things during the day when I just see people being unconscious about their actions and the ramifications, whether it's throwing litter out of a car, which is, you know, an age old kind of hippie irritation, but just not understanding our impacts on the world around us. And however that manifests does rub me raw. And it comes back to, well, I need to make sure I'm doing what I need to be doing. And if people want to talk to me about what I'm doing and learn from that, then all the better. But it's not anything that I'm going to force on anybody.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The next event is October 20th at Bates College in Lewiston and it's called Villages. And Genevieve has already asked how you can register.

Adam Burk:

So that's Tedxdirago.com Tedxdirgo.com Yep, we have limited seating and we will sell out for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, I can attest to this that it's a very difficult. It's a place you want to be.

Genevieve Morgan:

And let's just be clear, it's just a one day event.

Adam Burk:

It's a one day event. It's from 9am till 5pm so do

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you know what the future looks like as far as TEDx, Dirigo and as far as Adam Burke?

Adam Burk:

Sure. No, I don't entirely. But continuing to do things that are deeply meaningful, we're in the process of minting a nonprofit organization that will do TEDxDirogo and more and will be filing paperwork in the coming weeks. That's to answer the question of how is this sustainable and also what comes next after every event. It's a very powerful, moving encounter, but people are always looking for other ways to be engaged on a more regular basis, and we haven't been able to do that under the guise of TedxDirgo and on all volunteer power. So this new organization is going to provide physical spaces as well as more event and programmatic spaces that people can dream and develop solutions together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we appreciate your coming in and talking to us about how you're building a global village and your upcoming event Villages at Bates College in Lewiston on October 20th. So we wish you all the best. Really, this is very inspirational and the idea of authentic living. It sounds like you're living your life authentically and you provided people who are listening today means of moving forward in that direction as well. So thank you, thank you.

Adam Burk:

It's a pleasure to be talking with you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

as part of today's Global Villages show, we have with us Anwar Majid, who is the associate Provost for Global Initiatives and the director of the center for Global Humanities at the University of New England. And I should say, actually doctor and professor. So thank you so much for coming in to join us.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Thank you for inviting me. It's really a pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. Majeed. It was interesting because the University of New England is a sponsor of our show. And we went to them and we said, you know, we're very interested in hearing what it is that you're doing in your university system with the humanities and the importance of a liberal arts education. And they immediately said, this is the man you need to talk to. And they gave us your name. So clearly you have some background that's very, very valuable to the University of New England. But you're not from Maine.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

No.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Where are you from?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

I was born in Tangier, Morocco, and I lived, I grew up in Tangier. And then I came to the States in 1983 to New York City, and I studied film for a while at the School of Visual Arts. And then I then went back to graduate studies in English and so on. And then I got my degrees and I came to work in Maine in 19.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why Maine? Why was Maine the state for you?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Because there was an ad in a publication. UNE was looking for somebody to teach certain courses in the humanities and writing. And the way they described Une at that time, Une was only in Biddeford, Maine. They described the ocean and the beautiful scenery. And I grew up in Tangier on the water. So I said, wow, this is an amazing place. So I applied and fortunately, unfortunately, I got the job.

Genevieve Morgan:

Did you come up in January or June?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Oh, no, no, it was in May, I think, or June. Maybe June. Maybe June, you're right.

Genevieve Morgan:

So you got a little bit of the summer in Maine before you?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Oh, yeah. And I was stayed in a bed and breakfast in Kennebunkport. It was owned by a history professor at une. He's now. He passed away a few years ago. His name is Jack Downs. Wonderful guy. His wife is still alive, Eva Downs. So I was treated like wonderfully. And at that time, I didn't know the difference between Kennebunkport and Biddeford and other places in the state. So it all looked good to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. And you chose a very beautiful spot because the University of New England. It really is. Right on the water. The Biddeford campus.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Absolutely, yeah. And it was beautiful. I couldn't believe a campus could look that beautiful. I don't know whether you've seen the campus, but it's really gorgeous.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And one of the things that I went to the University of New England website, as I told you before we came on air, and you had an interview with somebody from mpbn, you were describing the fact that the University of New England has this. It's known for its medical school, it's known for its sciences, it's known for things that are related to sort of the physical. But it's interesting that you were brought in to teach humanities and writing and liberal arts. And why, why is that important to the University of New England?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Well, there's a misconception out there and people see UNE as a health sciences university, which it is, and it's very good at doing those things. But I think all, I mean, everybody at UNE strongly believe that you cannot really have a good education without a solid foundation in the liberal arts and the humanities and the social sciences. And so, you know, I mean, you know, you really cannot be educated, have a full education without having some acquaintance, at least with a deep appreciation of some of these subjects in the humanities and social sciences. And so we, you know, so I'm the person. I'm one of many people at UNE who have been trying to promote and make this part of UNE visible. And so years ago, in 2000, when I came to work at UNE, there was no Department of English, for example. And then in 2000, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences asked me to create one. So I created a Department of English which is now doing very well. I mean, we still had great faculty, great publications, and yet a lot of people do not know that we have a great English department, for example. I mean, it's very common. And the same may be true for history and other programs. So in 2009, the same person who was dean became provost. And then he asked me to. I proposed a Center for Global Humanities. And he said, yeah, it's a great idea. And so he supported it along with other members of the university. And soon after that, I was as to head the global initiatives for the University of New England. But always coming at it from the perspective, the strong conviction that an education in the liberal arts, including a big dose of the humanities and stuff like that, is absolutely indispensable for a well educated graduate of UNE in the 21st century.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I think it's arguable that it's important for anybody graduating from any college or university in the 21st century. However, we've had a lot of people lately who are talking about the return on investment for a college degree. How do you respond to that?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

It's a big challenge. I know enrollment in the humanities, of the arts and philosophy, I mean, at least until recently, were declining nationally because people have to invest, like you said, in their education. And job prospects for people graduating from these majors and these programs are not very good. It's a major challenge. It's a decision that I truly, fully appreciate. The way I respond to parents, the way I respond to students, the way I respond to everybody, said, if you have a sum of money, let's say you're a private university like the University of New England, and you have, I don't know, let's say $100,000 to invest in yourself. How would you like to invest that? Would you get a degree in a very practical field? For some people, that's what they want. But also there's a good argument to be made for investing in a great education in philosophy or literature or history. You may not end up with a job. I think you will end up, I mean, with a richer life because, you know, to live those kinds of programs and educations, they help people look at life differently and they enlarge their perspectives and they broaden their horizons and they make everything, I mean, to me at least, everything is interesting. I mean, I cannot walk from this block to the next without seeing something that interests me and intrigues me, my imagination.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, and I think that the idea that you may not have a job is maybe it's more that you may not have an immediate job right away, but there is a very good chance that you will end up with a job at some point and maybe even a better job than you would have gotten if you had invested in a technology degree.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

That's true. I mean, now at une, we are not a technology school, we are a health sciences university. And I think it's a great and noble vocation and pursuit because health care, healthcare is a vital component. It used to be in ancient Greece and before then a part of a liberal education. I mean, philosophers and physicians were one and the same. I mean, actually they were wise people. And nowadays we have managed to separate the two vocations as if they were told one is very practical and the other one is, is sort of a humanities based enterprise. I think health care, medicine and all those related fields should be thought of as part of a Liberal arts pursuit and a humanistic endeavor. And if we manage to change perceptions or at least to correct misperceptions about these fields, we could maybe we can have a more powerful argument to make.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But it's not that you won't end up with a job. It just means that the path might zigzag a little bit, as adam Burke from TEDxDirago talks about.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Yeah. And that zigzagging is what frightens people. And some people spend a long time zigzagging and they end up in places they never imagined they would. So, I mean, we cannot guarantee safe arrival. I mean, no one can. I mean, so as an educator, we cannot tell students, okay, you're gonna go through some zigzagging, and then maybe five years from then, maybe five years later, you'd find a nice job in Maine Magazine or some other publication or some newspaper or whatever, or the museum. I think, I think, you know what the best we can say is it's gonna be challenging, but you may have an interest in life. And the other thing I tell people is look at the leadership in the globe. Very often people in positions of leadership are products of a humanities and social sciences background. They don't come from highly specified technology fields or other similar fields. Look at Congress, look at big corporations, look at people who govern the world. Really look at the United Nations. There are very few people who are graduates of highly specified or highly specialized, I should say, academic fields.

Genevieve Morgan:

That brings me to a question. I want to pull the lens back a little bit and talk about narrow versus broad philosophies in terms of another interest of yours in this global humanities, the idea of civilization and cultures moving forward. And I think one of the things that we're seeing right now in present is a contentious time between fundamentalist narrow visions, which are very prescribed, and a more broad based, humanistic philosophy. And I know that you're an expert in this, so I'd love for you to speak on that.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Yeah, I'm challenging both sides of the divide, you know, to say I spent the last 15 years or so writing on the clash between the west and the Islamic world, so to speak. And you know, there are. Both sides can be totally misguided. And in 2007, I published a book with the title A Call for Heresy and why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America. Both sides. But the point I'm trying to make to both sides is fundamentalism is really what it is, a symptom of fear. I mean, there's no doubt about that. And an open Mind is a symptom of a realistic approach to life in the Middle Ages. And I like to say a lot of medievalists would tell you that in the Middle Ages, people were very comfortable saying, if you ask them a question, they would reply by saying yes and no. Nowadays, in the last few centuries, that possibility, that option has been eliminated. And now we are living in a world where people insist on having things either black or white. They're very uncomfortable living in gray areas. And yet it is that grayness which is what shaped the early ancient Greek philosophers mind. They wrestled with that grayness. They tried to understand the meaning of life. The foundation of Western civilization and Islamic civilization, by the way, which is derivative from the same origins in so many ways, is ancient Greek philosophy where people were wrestling with major existential ideas. And they are not guided by fundamentalism. They were not guided by a powerful monotheistic deity that told them what is right or wrong. They had their God, so many of them, but they were so flawed and human in them, you know, at least in the Greek perception and the way they behaved. So I think, you know, if we only went back. And that's what I'm trying to do in the next few years. I'm trying to bring some people back to ancient Greece to have them truly appreciate how the Greeks. How the Greeks, really, what the Greeks did was. What did. Was an incredibly innovative way to dealing with the complexities of existence, a practice that was completely eclipsed by Christianity, by the way, and the rise of monotheism, and only came back very briefly with the enlightenment in the 18th century, of which the United States, by the way, is a product. The American Revolution is a little. It's a small expression of the great spirit of the Enlightenment, whose philosophers were extremely radical. I mean, a lot of notions what we have today, like human rights and freedoms and democracy were all the result of this very brief period in the 18th century, basically. And I think we need to expand that and educate people about what that means for the future of human civilization.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I know that this is part of what you're doing with the center you've had speakers in. And I think Noam Chomsky came in and had a conversation that was basically on the subject. What exactly? I mean, the center is a center, but what is it trying to do? What's your mission, and how are you accomplishing it?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

When I proposed. When I made a proposal for the center, I said it would have to be 100% public. Everything the center does has to be for the public of our region. Of our area, of our city and so on. And it is basically what I felt and the University of New England agreed with me was that there is a glaring lack for a forum in the city, on the region to have ideas, serious ideas discussed where people would be invited to participate. And now, by the way, we've expanded our program into libraries in Halton and Bangor. We are streaming live, we are providing books, and we are paying for faculty there to teach some of the seminars where we are holding at the center. All free. Everything we're doing is free and open to the public. And it's an investment, we think. And if you don't invest in the intellectual and cultural life of your community like this radio program is doing, the community ends up being severely impoverished. And it's not a right place for students to get an education for anybody else to be. People do not understand. And one of the great speakers we had, by the way, the first year we had was Richard Sims. He's an expert, he's an economist who specializes in education. And he basically made a very convincing financial argument as to why investing in education is the best thing anyone can do. So I think culture tends to be underrated. When bottom line thinkers come gather around a table and they begin to see things, thinking of things, of they begin to look for things to cut. Culture is one of the first things to go. That's a huge mistake because you may create that impoverishes a lot. And then I think we should reconsider the role of culture not only in a democratic society, but in the well being of any community that we happen to participate in.

Genevieve Morgan:

How would you say the center helps? One of the things that's happening is the election approaches and has been happening in this country for about 10 years, is a decline in discourse. It's very difficult for people who have opposing views, particularly politically, to talk to one another and learn from one another. Does your center address how to repair those rifts in our village of America?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Well, I mean, we can only work in our community, but our programming is available globally. We're Streamed live. People can watch us live from around the globe, live when the event is happening. But I personally, and I'm trying, in fact, been looking for speakers who are of a different mold than we usually get. I mean, let's say most of us speakers of a liberal bent. I am really, I've been asking people to see if they can find interesting conservative speakers, you know, and a lot of my friends can't think of them. But I really do want us to have conservative speakers so we can have a real, genuine dialogue. Because it seems like cultural spheres tend to be overwhelmingly liberal for an understandable reason, because people spend a lot of time thinking about global issues and so on, reflecting about their lives and the future and paths of civilization. So reflection, you know, sort of tempers a little some of the extremism that is embedded in us in some ways. But if you look nationally, this nation seems to be divided between, you know, liberals and a variety of conservatives. We need to hear those voices and get them engaged. So I'll be trying to do some of that in the future.

Genevieve Morgan:

But Lisa and I are both products of a liberal arts college here in Maine, Bowdoin. And that was always one of the goals of that education was to bring opposing points of view together in discourse so that a greater solution. It wasn't even a solution, but a greater conversation could be had. The community as a whole gets impoverished when you can't even talk about these issues without there being so much anger and volatility. What are some of the ways that our listeners can learn about things that they might not know about? I mean, you said you have some lectures.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Yeah, we do lectures. We do reading associated with those lectures. If you go to a website, you'll find the center for Global Humanities website. You'll find each lecture, public lecture is associated with a reading assignment. So people have like, it's already posted for till April 2013. So people can read a book ahead of time and come to the event, talk to the writer, the author, and have the book signed and a reception, wine and cheese and all kinds of good stuff at the Art Gallery in Portland on the Portland campus, and then attend the lecture. And it's an invitation for an interest, for dialogue. And I hope people take advantage of these events. I don't know how I'm trying. I keep pushing for more visibility of the program. It's a resource that is available now, but if it doesn't get supported, as you know, things might change and I don't want them to change.

Genevieve Morgan:

So to that parent, that's Their son or daughter at this point is about to embark on a liberal arts education. What would you say to that parent as they watch their child struggle with these ideas that they want to be a philosophy major but maybe it won't get them a job?

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Yes, I would say what I tried to say earlier. If you have, if you want to invest in your child, if you want to, you have some money to invest in your child, you know you have options. You know your child is curious about these kinds of things, but you think there's no outcome, there's no money in that thing and they may be poor and starving in 10 years or 20 years from now and it's better for them if they did X. But in the end it's only a guess. So it's a safer bet to go with the child and let them explore the things that they're passionate about. And if they lose, well, they've tried everything. The parents are not responsible for the loss. They have supported the child in their quest for whatever it is they were looking for. And then the child, now an adult and now a, you know, whatever accomplished professor and doctor accomplished professor are responsible for whatever it is they have become. They're not fully responsible. I shouldn't, that's too much, too harsh of a statement. But it's. Their destiny has been traced for them without a lot of coercion from the parents.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think that we could keep talking for a very long time. I mean, that's the idea about humanities and liberal arts. I think it does bring us back to this idea of the village, whether it's a local village or a global village. And maybe the idea that it takes all different sorts of people living within a village as opposed to one mindset, it sounds like that's what the University of New England is trying to do, is make that possible.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Yes. And I would say, and I've been saying this for years now, I wish I could write a book on conversations. I think a conversation is the most radical thing anyone can do because a conversation is open ended and it's not about the truth. When people are having a conversation there, it's really, it's a medium for staying connected and being alive. The moment somebody said, okay, I know the truth, you know, that's it, I'm not going to be convinced. They have killed the conversation and they have killed the relationship. So conversations are never about the truth. They are always, it's a never ending quest which is designed to be as such in order to facilitate relations in the community and the moment somebody shows up with the absolute truth, they change everything and they create a divided community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, on that note, talking about conversations, I think that we will give you our most sincere appreciation for coming in and speaking to us on this topic of Global Villages. We've been talking with Professor Dr. Anwar Majid from the University of New England, so thank you so much for the conversation.

Dr. Anouar Majid:

Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you've been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 51 Global Villages airing for the first time on September 2, 2012. Our guests today have included Adam Burke, the executive director of TEDxDirago, and Professor Anwar Majid of the University of New England. We know that we are continuing to build our global village with much hope and happiness and gratitude for all the support we've received over the last year. Please do become part of our community. Like us on Facebook, Visit our website drlisabelisle.com Sign up for our weekly E newsletter or give us a call and let us know what you think. This has certainly been an interesting journey for us over the past 51 episodes as we go into year two. We thank you for all of your support. We really wouldn't be able to build a global village if it weren't for the help of those who are building the village with us. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being a part of our world.