Third Space Thoughts to Policy

Listen into our conversation with Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss on sense of belonging, one of the constructs measured in the first two rounds of the AEMS Mapping the Terrain Study.

This term usually has positive connotations but also comes up alot in Dr. Miller-Idriss's work on far right extremism which she delves into more deeply during the podcast along with ways that faculty and administrators can help increase sense of belonging for students on campus. They also discuss sense of belonging through online learning, which is particularly relevant in the time of COVID-19 era.

Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of far right extremism and higher education. She is Professor of Education and Sociology and runs the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the Center for University Excellence (CUE) at the American University in Washington, DC. She is also Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the U.K.-based Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right and serves on the international advisory board of the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) in Oslo, Norway. Dr. Miller-Idriss has testified before the U.S. Congress and frequently serves as a keynote speaker and expert panelist on trends in white supremacist extremism to global academic and policy communities as well as staff and representatives in U.S. and international government agencies and embassies.

Dr. Miller-Idriss is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six academic books, including Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, forthcoming from Princeton University Press in fall 2020. She also has recent by-lines in The Washington Post and The New York Times and also appeared on NPR's All Things Considered.

Listen in to Amina's conversation with Dr. Andreas Krafft as they discuss the power of hope, one of the constructs studied in the second round of IIIT's research for the Mapping the Terrain Study, part of its Advancing Education in Muslim Societies (AEMS) initiative.

For the past ten years, Dr. Krafft has been working on a very exciting project called the Hope-Barometer, which is an annual survey of people's hopes and expectations for the future. This has included approximately 10,000 people in 14 different countries each year. Dr. Krafft reveals to Amina what inspired this initiative and what the most important findings have been. They also discuss the benefits of hope, its various sources, as well as its relationship to spirituality and religion.

Dr. Andreas M. Krafft is a Research Associate and Lecturer at the Institute of Systemic Management and Public Governance, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). He is also the head of the International Hope-Barometer Research Network and Co-President of swissfuture, the Swiss Society for Future Studies. Dr. Krafft is also a Board member of SWIPPA, the Swiss Association of Positive Psychology.

Third Space Thoughts to Policy is back with season 3! Join Amina as she interviews Dr. Ilham Nasser, Director of Mapping the Terrain Research at IIIT to talk about the latest developments with the study in spite of COVID-19 and the importance of researching values that are part of this round of Mapping the Terrain including hope, gratitude, sense of belonging, forgiveness, and meaning making.

For the last two seasons, we’ve discussed various topics pertaining to education, human development, religion, policy, grassroots activism, wellbeing, culturally responsive education, how these overlap, and much more. All twelve of the episodes in our second season centered around the concept of wellbeing in or through education. Our third season discusses the values or constructs being measured in our global Mapping the Terrain Study which include hope, sense of belonging, meaning making, and forgiveness. These are all very relevant and timely concepts and audience members benefit from hearing from the experts who have studied these concepts and/or provided workshops on how best to foster them.

To kick off the third season, we starts by interviewing the Director of Mapping the Terrain Research, Dr. Ilham Nasser in episode 25 to discuss the latest developments with the global Mapping the Terrain study, which is still progressing in spite of COVID-19, as well as why we’re focusing on these particular values and how this information can be helpful for humanity as a whole.

Join Amina and Dr. Jehanzeb Cheema for the finale of season 2 of Third Space Thoughts to Policy. Dr. Cheema is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University's School of Business and a research methodologist with a background in education and economics. Prior to joining the School of Business, he taught research methodology courses at the University of Baltimore and also taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in Education from George Mason University in 2012, specializing in research methodology. He also has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, specializing in labor economics and development economics. His research interests include research methodology, focusing on measurement, assessment, and evaluation. His secondary fields of research interests include educational psychology and survey research. Dr. Cheema is also interested in missing data analysis and student achievement. He’s been published in numerous academic peer-reviewed journals including Educational Psychology, International Review of Education, Entertainment Computing, Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, The Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, and numerous others. He is the Methodologist for IIIT’s Mapping the Terrain study, part of the AEMS initiative.

Join the second part of our discussion on well-being and the future with Scott Jordan from The Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies (CPPFS). We discuss how understanding the concept of postnormal times can help policy makers make better decisions in the best interest of societal and individual well-being as well its role in educational settings.

Scott Jordan is the Executive Assistant Director at CPPFS. A philosopher and political scientist, Scott is attached to the Asian World Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a member of the Nonkilling Consortium International, and has worked with an international summer camp in China through the Soong Ching Ling Foundation. A regular contributor to the quarterly Critical Muslim, he hosts a radio podcast show, Tea Talk Asia. His research is focused on the postnormal dimensions of international policy, politics and governance, which he often explores through films.

Join the first part of our discussion on well-being and the future with Scott Jordan from The Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies (CPPFS). We discuss the definition of "postnormal times", futures studies, and how understanding these concepts can help policy makers.

Scott Jordan is the Executive Assistant Director at CPPFS. A philosopher and political scientist, Scott is attached to the Asian World Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a member of the Nonkilling Consortium International, and has worked with an international summer camp in China through the Soong Ching Ling Foundation. A regular contributor to the quarterly Critical Muslim, he hosts a radio podcast show, Tea Talk Asia. His research is focused on the postnormal dimensions of international policy, politics and governance, which he often explores through films.

Listen into Amina's conversation with Dr. Nora El-Bilawi from Hood College as they discuss well-being and training of teachers.

Dr. Nora El-Bilawi is currently an assistant professor of education at Hood College, Fredrick MD. Dr. El-Bilawi has a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree from George Mason University, College of Education and Human Development with a specialization in multicultural education, international education, and curriculum and instruction. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in online, hybrid, and in face-to-face class format focusing on cultural studies, international and globalization perspectives, and on language learning methods and strategies. Also, she held a position during 2014-2016 as an assistant professor of education at the American University in Dubai, UAE. Her research interest and field publications focus on international education, multiculturalism/multilingualism, education reform, teacher training/education, and curriculum and instruction.

Join Amina and Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss as they discuss well-being, culturally responsive research, and the far right.

Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of far right extremism and higher education. She is Professor of Education and Sociology and Director of Research at the Center for University Excellence (CUE) at the American University in Washington, DC, and Senior Fellow and Director of Outreach at the U.K.-based Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. A cultural sociologist, she has spent two decades researching the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of radical and extreme youth culture, most recently through a focus on how clothing, style and symbols act as a gateway into extremist scenes and subcultures. She also writes widely on higher education issues, particularly related to the internationalization of universities and the far right's impact on the higher education sector.​

In addition to her academic work, Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, with recent by-lines in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CNN Style, The Guardian, Le Monde, Salon, and more. She appears regularly in the media as an expert source and political commentator, most recently on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, NPR's All Things Considered, NBC's The Today Show, the UK's BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed, France 24's The Interview, The Washington Post Live, Ireland's The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk and in Austria's DATUM Magazine.

​In new research, Miller-Idriss has been studying transnational flows in far-right youth scenes' aesthetics and style in six countries. She is at work on a new book, Hate in the Homeland: The New Spaces and Places of the U.S. Far Right, to be published in fall 2020. Her most recent book, The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany, was published last year in 2018.

Listen in to Amina's conversation on well-being and ethics with Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi from The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi from is an innovative thinker, philosopher, educator and a polymath monk. He is Director of the Ethics Initiative at the MIT Media Lab and President & CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a center dedicated to inquiry, dialogue, and education on the ethical and humane dimensions of life. The Center is a collaborative and nonpartisan think tank, and its programs emphasize responsibility and examine meaningfulness and moral purpose between individuals, organizations, and societies. Six Nobel Peace Laureates serve as The Center’s founding members and its programs run in several countries and are expanding.

Venerable Tenzin's unusual background encompasses entering a Buddhist monastery at the age of ten and receiving graduate education at Harvard University with degrees ranging from Philosophy to Physics to International Relations. He is a Tribeca Disruptive Fellow and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Venerable Tenzin serves on the boards of a number of academic, humanitarian, and religious organizations. He is the recipient of several recognitions and awards, and received Harvard’s Distinguished Alumni Honors for his visionary contributions to humanity.

Listen in to Amina's conversation on well-being and philanthropy with Dr. Shariq Siddiqui from Indiana University. Dr. Siddiqui is also part of the AEMS team at IIIT.

Dr. Shariq Siddiqui serves as the visiting director and assistant professor of the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Shariq has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He also has a JD from the McKinney School of Law at Indiana University and holds a B.A. in History from the University of Indianapolis.

Shariq authors research on Muslim philanthropy and the Muslim nonprofit sector. Most recently, he conducted a national survey of full-time Islamic schools in the United States. This project resulted in the book (that he co-authored) Islamic Education in the United States and the Evolution of Muslim Nonprofit Institutions that will be published in November 2017. Shariq also serves as the co-editor of the new Journal on Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society and as the Series Editor of the Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society Book Series published by Indiana University Press. He has served as a nonprofit practitioner for over 20 years for international, national, regional, and local nonprofit organizations.

Shariq is also the former Executive Director of Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). ARNOVA is a leading international association that connects scholars, teachers, and practice leaders in research on nonprofit organizations, voluntary action, philanthropy and civil society.