Towards meaningful insights through dialogue

Many of us, students and staff, are directly or indirectly affected by the violence in Gaza and Israel. While pain, anger and grief in the light of the realities in Palestine and Israel, are shared by many; knowing how to navigate these feelings and their impact upon us, as individuals and as a UM community, has perhaps been less straightforward.

UM students and staff are invited to sit together at the table to exchange personal stories and thoughts to better understand the impact the ongoing violence has on us.

This Dialogue Table will be in the form of a contemplative dialogue. This is a structured method of three rounds of writing, reading and listening. A practice of intentional and slow speaking, active listening, silence, openness, wonder and insight. This event is not an academic discussion or public debate. Dialogue is about wanting to listen to the other, trying to understand and wanting to connect. 

The moderator of this Dialogue Table is Evanne Nowak. She has a practice of curating cultural events and hosting philosophical conversations on lived experiences and existential questions in troubling times.  With a background in humanistic counseling, theatre and philosophy, she strives to hold space in which overwhelm, helplessness, grief, anger can just be. In order to find language that helps us to grasp the unsayable, unthinkable; to learn to stay with complexity; to acknowledge with compassion and empathy our complicity in these endless structures of destruction.

Music will be played by Eleonora Urbelytė (violin), Daniel Rivera (viola) and Mikayel Voskanyan (cello). The will play The song of the birds (traditional Catalan), Oblivion (by A. Piazzolla) and Gabriel’s oboe (by E. Morricone).

This Dialogue is organised by the Diversity and Inclusivity Office and Studium Generale.