Unusual Pairs: CRDC Honors Kabawat Citizen Diplomacy Highlighted at Film Screening
On October 19th, The Center for World Religions
, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) will be presenting CRDCs first Citizen Diplomacy Award to CRDC Senior Associate, Hind Kabawat. In addition to recognizing Kabawat, there will be a screening of a film series entitled Unusual Pairs: Friends Across the Divide, directed by David Vyorst in partnership with the Fetzer Institute, which features Kabawat's and Gopins pioneering work in Syria. The film takes an in-depth look at unique partners who have developed friendship and cooperation in working for peace across the Arab-Israeli divide, addresses issues surrounding their biographies, motivations, and how these characteristics can be instilled in others on a large scale basis.
The citizen diplomacy approach used in the film, and the subject of Dr. Gopins latest book, To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy (Rowman Littlefield), has been largely overlooked. Hence, Gopin and Fetzer consider it a vital contemporary social need to spread the word by engaging the public in order to educate the world. The hope is to eventually establish a network of people committed to creating positive social change in a world embroiled in deadly conflict. Therefore, in an effort to assist the establishment of future partnerships and to build a reservoir of knowledge around positive social change, individuals are invited to share other stories of unusual pairs working across enemy lines.
Several distinguished guests will join CRDC to celebrate Ms. Kabawat's award and the film's release, and to hear Dr. Gopin read excerpts from his new book, which analyzes the past five years of his work with Kabawat in Syria. Ms. Kabawat will be on hand to describe the context of the film and respond to audience questions.
The ICAR community is invited to attend.
Those wishing to join the celebration should RSVP by October 10th, 2009 to Fadwa Barinji: [email protected]