New York University will host Zaheer Ali as the keynote speaker at the annual Liberal Studies Student Research Colloquium, on Friday, April 5, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium at the NYU Helen & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life (60 Washington Square South).
Zaheer Ali is the inaugural executive director of the Hutchins Institute for Social Justice at the Lawrenceville School and an executive producer of American Muslims: A History Revealed, a forthcoming series of short documentary films.
For Ali, oral history is the center of cultural preservation. Storytelling, he says, serves as a powerful medium for marginalized voices and challenges notions dictated by the mainstream discourse. His keynote address, “Listening as Creative Act: Story-Listening for Social Change,” will discuss the role of storytelling in advancing social justice and explore the importance of listening to everyone’s stories and its pivotal role towards nurturing inclusive communities.
Ali’s scholarship explores the use of oral history to preserve voices from the past and to change the mainstream narrative. One of his works is Flatbush + Main, an award-winning monthly podcast that covered Brooklyn’s past through historical archives and oral history. His work on Malcolm X was featured in CNN’s documentary Witnessed: The Assassination of Malcolm X (2015) and Netflix’s documentaries Who Killed Malcolm X? (2020) and Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (2021).
Ali, a former adjunct professor at NYU’s School of Professional Studies, has received a Soros Equality Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations for his work to leverage the power of storytelling and listening for social change. He was also recognized with the 2021 Special Jury Social Justice prize from the GLAMi Awards and the 2021 MUSE Award from the American Alliance of Museums.
The keynote address is free and open virtually to the public. Registration for the webinar is required on the Zoom registration page. For more information or to request accessibility accommodations, please email [email protected] or call 212.998.7120.
About NYU Liberal Studies
Liberal Studies at NYU is recognized for its interdisciplinary, global liberal arts curriculum, experiential learning and small, seminar-style classes. It offers the best of both worlds: a small college experience nestled within a large urban research university. Liberal Studies has the second largest entering first year undergraduate class each year at NYU. Its classes are small; its presence is large and far-reaching.
