“This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.”

                                                        Rumi

 

As a community leader with an academic background, I have spent more than 15 years dedicating myself to interfaith dialogue and intercultural outreach with Rumi Forum. I started getting involved in these activities as a volunteer graduate student (2006-2013) when we founded the Interfaith/Intercultural Dialogue Organization (IDO) at the University of Kentucky. Since 2013, I have been continuing that involvement at a professional level as a member of the Rumi Forum in various capacities.

Throughout this time period, I relied on the passion and leadership I carried in my heart while reaching out to community organizations, academic institutions, faith congregations, social responsibility partners, and decision-makers from the local to the federal level.

I tried to bring these instincts and skills together while keeping in mind the importance of personal friendships and institutional relationships that can, hopefully, make the world a better place one step, and one friend, at a time.

As an institution, Rumi Forum has built a strong track record in cultivating relationships over its 23-year history. What is next on Rumi Forum’s agenda is to launch its interdisciplinary research center, Center for Faith, Identity, and Globalization (CFIG) in order to enhance our bridgebuilding work with a research component. We couldn’t ask for a better occasion than the #IRFSummit2022 to introduce Rumi Forum’s publication unit that will strengthen the impact of interfaith initiatives.

This initiative, which will be dedicated exclusively to substantive research, is already crystallizing thanks to high-quality research papers authored by our associates. With the addition of this compartment, Rumi Forum will not only be a hospitable platform for quality content on faith, identity, and globalization but will also become a contributor to that literature and will fulfill a vital role in realizing the Forum’s vision by generating qualified written outputs. Please stay tuned for more updates.

For more information and to contribute to CFIG, please contact cfig@rumiforum.org and follow us on LinkedIn.