{"id":327,"date":"2019-08-06T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pollinatorthereskonrad.wordpress.com\/?p=327"},"modified":"2019-08-06T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T04:00:00","slug":"blog-post-7-authenticity-and-dealing-with-ones-own-position-allows-us-to-advance-together-as-a-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Blog post #7: WANTED: Authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWhen dealing with peace and conflict \u2013 it is essential to deal with oneself<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the chance to get to know Daniela Lehner<\/a><\/em> when we were both studying at Lund University. After her studies in pedagogy and development studies she now engages with transformational learning<\/em> at the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education at Alpen-Adria<\/em>–University of Klagenfurt<\/em><\/a> (Austria). Her approach is authentic and honest. She truly inspired me in the way she described her teaching approaches<\/a>, based not only on knowledge gained over the years but particularly informed and inspired by experiences she herself has made \u2013 or exposed herself to, as a learner. She visited seminars like The Heroine\u2019s\/Hero\u2019s Journey<\/em> and Gestalt therapy<\/em> and \u201csent\u201d me to The heART of Change<\/a><\/em> seminar in 2015 which empowered me on my \u201cpath of authenticity\u201d. Inspiration can be drawn from their publication Take the Future in your Hands<\/a>!<\/em> (not only for teachers!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, Daniela is actually bringing into practice what sustainability science<\/em> theoretically wants to do: Being aware of and respecting different perspectives. I admire her because she tries her best to live her true nature, being fair<\/em> towards her values. In bringing Bell Hooks<\/a> and Audre Lorde<\/a> into the classroom she gives space to discourses otherwise not so present in Western academia. In our last encounter we talked, among many things, about privilege<\/em> and whose role it is to initiate change. In my few years in academia, what I noticed is, indeed, that we are good at keeping discourses alive. As aware as we might be about certain topics \u2013 or even not. What privileges do I as a (sustainability) scientist hold?<\/em> What responsabilities does this imply?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was \u201cdelighted\u201d that recently the faculty of sustainability at Leuphana University of L\u00fcneburg initiated a workshop with the title \u201cWhat has gender to do with it?\u201d. It is hard to be critized, to deal with critique. I am talking from my own experience. However, isn\u00b4t this a good opportunity to trigger reflection what to improve? When you have already a certain reputation, and let us say sustainability science is labelled as \u201cgood\u201d and so are universities \u2013 they carry societal prestige, working for societal, planetary advancement (or so<\/em>\u2026). But isn\u00b4t it a sign of strength to acknowledge own weaknesses? That there is still room for improvement? Even though e.g. we sustainability scientists or universities do already so much great stuff? I appreciate that we as a faculty have started (!) to engage with gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engaging with certain topics, in my eyes, is not loosing track of what we are after (e.g. dealing with climate change, peace on the planet \u2013 to mention some small<\/em> issues\u2026). It is doing it authentically<\/em>, in staying true to our values<\/em>. In sustainability science we are moving in a multi-disciplinary area, where there are many voices that not only want to be heard but need to be heard if we are truly after sustainability in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Daniela <\/em>for being such a shining star, encouraging us, by example (!), to stay authentic and do what matters to us. And like that inspire change. This entails engaging with and reflecting upon oneself. Dealing with one\u00b4s own role on this playground<\/em> <\/a>Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you\never heard someone saying \u201csharing is caring\u201d? Know what? \u2013 I actually think we\ncould also say \u201cdaring is caring\u201d. If we dare to be authentic<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 then we truly\ncan make change. Not reproducing \u2013 but co-creating. Namely, the future we\nenvision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen dealing with peace and conflict \u2013 it is essential to deal with oneself.\u201d I had the chance to get to know Daniela Lehner when we were both studying at Lund University. After her studies in pedagogy and development studies she now engages with transformational learning at the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education… Blog post #7: WANTED: Authenticity<\/span> weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authenticity","category-change-agent","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thereskonrad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}