Workshop: A new dialogue on hard topics
Instructor and facilitator: John Sarrouf
Tuesday July 10, 2018, 14.00-17.30
Hrant Dink Foundation, Anarad Hığutyun Building
Questions and the way they are asked have the potential to transform interactions, informing how people approach, view, and engage others. The workshop, with the participation of John Sarrouf from Essential Partners, will enable participants to gain experience with the power of questions to invite understanding and connections between the asked and the asker. Please fill in the form below to attend the workshop on Tuesday, July 10.
Participation in the workshop is limited to 20 people. The deadline for the application is Wednesday, July 4, at 18.00 pm.
During the selection of workshop participants, priority will be given to journalists and communication and journalism students.
Apart from group exercises, the workshop will be held in English. Consecutive interpreting will be used when necessary.
PROGRAM
14.00-14.15: Opening remarks and introduction: Goals of the workshop
14.15-14.30: Participant introductions
14.30-15.00: Presentation by John Sarrouf: “The dynamics of stuck conversations and the shift to a constructive cycle”
15.00-16.30: Small group exercises: "Questions of persuasion vs Questions of Understanding" & Designing questions for connection and complexity
16.30-17.00: Large group discussions and questions
17.00-17.30: Online engagement: How journalists can become moderators of good online civil discourse
About Essential Partners
For more than 27 years, Essential Partners has been an international leader using our unique approach to dialogue to promote connection and curiosity between those who see one another as the enemy.
Essential Partners trains people to help communities heal by:
- Shifting relationships toward productive engagement and coexistence
- Promoting rehumanization of the ‘Other,’ while reducing stereotypes
- Enhancing mutual understanding and learning through structured dialogues
- Strengthening individual and community resilience to engage differences.
About John Sarrouf
Sarrouf was first exposed to the work of Essential Partners while studying in the masters program in dispute resolution at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Since then Sarrouf has facilitated dialogues on issues such as sustainability, gender, Israel-Palestine, religious pluralism, and technology and sexuality. He served as the Assistant Director of Difficult Dialogues at Clark University, where he taught dialogue to faculty and students. Sarrouf teaches in the departments of Communication and Peace and Conflict Studies at Gordon College. Sarrouf's private consulting work has focused on mediation and transforming conflict in small work groups and non-profit boards. To all of his work he brings a background of 15 years in the theater as an actor, director, and administrator.
