Radical hope and democratic engagement

Awareness & Critical Reflection

Jun 19, 2025

19:15

-

20:30

VU Aurora

Sliding scale starting at €5 and education events are free, if you do not have means to purchase a ticket please email us.
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In her lecture, Ghorashi will draw on both her personal and academic experience to explore the importance of refugee narratives in reimagining democratic engagement. This act of imagination is essential for envisioning transformative conditions for recognition and dignity—especially within the context of indifferent geopolitical developments. The concept of radical hope offers a powerful lens through which to imagine a different world: one where refugees believe in their transformative competence and the value of their insider knowledge, and where society, in turn, recognizes and affirms this strength.

In her lecture, Ghorashi will draw on both her personal and academic experience to explore the importance of refugee narratives in reimagining democratic engagement.
This act of imagination is essential for envisioning transformative conditions for recognition and dignity—especially within the context of indifferent geopolitical developments.
The concept of radical hope offers a powerful lens through which to imagine a different world: one where refugees believe in their transformative competence and the value of their insider knowledge, and where society, in turn, recognizes and affirms this strength.
Get tickets
Halleh Ghorashi is Full Professor of Diversity and Integration in the Department of Sociology at the VU (Vrije Universiteit) Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She combines a multidisciplinary background in social sciences (anthropology, sociology, gender studies, (political) philosophy and organization studies) with a critical approach in diversity and refugee/migration studies with narrative co-creative methodology.. In 2017, she received prestigious VICI grant on Engaged Scholarship and Narratives of Change from NOW (Engaged Scholarship Narratives of Change - home). From 2018 to 2024, she was appointed as a Crown Member of the SER (Dutch Social Economic Council) and in 2020 as a member of KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). In 2021 she received Amsterdam Impact Award for her research about refugees and diversity. In 2022 she was appointed as a member of the State committee against discrimination and racism. www.hallehghorashi.com