As an organization that promotes mutual respect and greater interfaith understanding in West Michigan, Kaufman Interfaith Institute is sponsoring a Ravel/Unravel campaign in order to start a meaningful conversation about identity in Grand Valley State University's student body and beyond. This project will encourage students to think critically about their identity and begin to teach educate them on how to be respectful of others’ identities, all while celebrating the diversity of Grand Valley's community.
We live in a community, country, and world where religion is central to our personal, political, and social lives. If never publicly discussed, religion runs the risk of becoming a force to divide rather than unite. Ravel/Unravel will show we all have unique and meaningful identities, no matter our different labels and traditions.
Sponsored also by the University Libraries, we will be able to feature these videos to the student body by displaying them in the Learning Alcove of the Mary Idema Pew Library and Information Commons in Allendale, Michigan, which seeks to foster learning and discovery outside of the classroom through creative media.
We asked four questions.
- What is your religious or spiritual identity?
- What is a religious/spiritual stereotype that impacts you?
- How do you find community for your religious or spiritual life at Grand Valley and/or in Grand Rapids?
- Is there anything else you would like us to know about you and your religion or belief system?
The folks at Project Interfaith, an organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, asked the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and University Libraries to lead a discussion about running a successful Ravel/Unravel video campaign on our campus.
