Building a Common Memory for a Better Future
Document Type
Event
Department
Leadership and Organizational Studies
Abstract
Common memory is what family friends, colleagues, and community share who have been together for a long time. This research draws inspiration from authors that address issues such as racism, indigenous people’s rights, immigration, and the modern consequence of ancient religious doctrines, with a realization that across cultures we often lack that common memory. Literature already exists for giving various groups their voice. Through personal interviews, this study brings uniquely different voices together as a unified voice at an individual level for the purpose of building community. This study was designed to be a template for multicultural community building, potentially repeatable in other communities while remaining within the capacity of a single researcher, asking about participants’ origins, values, contributions to and expectations of communities, and incorporating their personal values and stories, some perhaps more difficult to hear than others. The researcher’s role is to analyze collected data in ways that honor each participant, and to report findings with the objective to create something new.
Building a Common Memory for a Better Future
Common memory is what family friends, colleagues, and community share who have been together for a long time. This research draws inspiration from authors that address issues such as racism, indigenous people’s rights, immigration, and the modern consequence of ancient religious doctrines, with a realization that across cultures we often lack that common memory. Literature already exists for giving various groups their voice. Through personal interviews, this study brings uniquely different voices together as a unified voice at an individual level for the purpose of building community. This study was designed to be a template for multicultural community building, potentially repeatable in other communities while remaining within the capacity of a single researcher, asking about participants’ origins, values, contributions to and expectations of communities, and incorporating their personal values and stories, some perhaps more difficult to hear than others. The researcher’s role is to analyze collected data in ways that honor each participant, and to report findings with the objective to create something new.
