1. Who are you?
I am Shagufta, a 2008 UBC Political Science graduate, and a writer, speaker, traveler, daughter, friend, sister, social scientist, and lifelong student, among so many other things! For the past year I’ve been heavily involved in the Terry Project, a initiative that helps UBC students from different disciplines connect with global issues. It’s a project that has taught me so much. From building interdisciplinary bridges, to generating discussion, to using humour to speak about issues of identity, to developing a sense of community through storytelling, it’s been an amazing teacher and laboratory. And with my time with Terry coming to an end, I hope to carry the lessons I’ve gained into my newest adventure: graduate studies in social planning and policy at the University of Toronto in Sept 2010. I’m excited to see what lies beyond the bend in the road.
2. What do you do for fun?
I am a lover of interesting people, interesting ideas, and beautiful words, and most of my hobbies revolve around these three passions. I love to read, to attend talks (with my faithful Moleskine in hand), to write letters, and to drink tea with wonderful people. I’m naturally curious, and it is exciting to be surrounded by highly intelligent, thoughtful, kind hearted people who are continually teaching me more about the world and the work that they do. I also like to bake, to listen to music, to study languages (Arabic, French and Urdu nowadays) and am bravely learning to cook, which is an ongoing project.
3. What is your favourite community and why?
If you define community geographically, then this city as a whole. There was a great piece by Gary Ross in the Walrus recently that perfectly summed up the complexities and contradictions of this beautiful, paradoxical city. I travel through the city as I commute from Surrey to UBC every day, and while I think we have a long way to go, our mountains and water and cherry blossoms make Vancouver like none other. My favourite border crossing community though is the TED one: it’s generous and full of deeply committed people, and I’ve benefited a great deal from its thinkers and doers over the years.
4. What is your superpower?
The element of surprise. I like to be involved, smile a great deal and am quite talkative, and these two things don’t match the common stereotype of the oppressed Muslim women. And so on a daily basis and in the most unusual of ways, I am constantly engaging in conversation about the hijab, gender relations, and Islam more broadly.
5. How do you use it to build community?
I think community is built on the notion of equal respect. If you’re fearful of those in your community it can be hard to build close knit spaces. And so I think I’m able to channel that surprise into opening up spaces to discuss where we get the stereotypes that we hold, how much truth these stereotypes actually contain, and what we do with the very real fears we may hold. I love studying Islam, I’m passionate about civic engagement and I’m a good listener, and I think all of those things help in building a more diverse, nuanced understanding of the communities to which we belong.
My Three Favourite Things about Shagufta are…
1. Thoughtfulness. I was struck by Ms. Pasta’s wise-beyond-her-years nature when we met to collaborate for the Univeristy of British Columbia’s Great Debate, which discussed the relevance of social media as an effective student engagement tool. Shagufta brought outstanding, unique and topical perspectives to the conversation that totally played a part in our side’s spectacular victory (we were lucky enough to be arguing the “yes, social media is relevant” side). A very impressive young woman.
2. Sense of Community. Whether she does it by surprise or not, Shagufta is all about engaging different kinds of community – friends, family, professors, classmates, strangers – in a myriad of ways, ranging from talking about social media on campus to cooking food to organizing supercool campus events.
3. The Terry Project is Awesome. It’s like TED.com, but different. It’s Terry! And Shagufta contributes to the group in a lot of ways, like managing the group’s Twitter feed. Check out the website if you like, or you can get a sense of the entire people-engaging organization by reading this limerick:
There once was a project named Terry
That wanted to make people wary
Of things going on
In the world that are wrong
Without making it all seem too scary.
– as told by John Horn