"We want to get people to meet people."
Friday, October 22, 2021
By SUSAN JONES
A year that saw people divided by culture, race, politics and more, as well as physically distanced to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, was the inspiration for Abdesalam Soudi, a Pitt lecturer in linguistics, to create the Cultural Engagement Playbook.
Abdesalam Soudi
“The scary part of COVID-19 is that people start looking for jobs because they start to feel detached from the workplace,” he said.
“Many Americans are still working from home. We can’t afford to put our relationships on hold,” he said, particularly between people who want to work in-person and those who want to stay remote. “How can we work to discover deeper connections with others?”
This is even more important, he said, in a time when hate crimes are increasing and scholars are trying to find ways to help, such as those who gathered at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this week in Pittsburgh for the first Eradicate Hate Global Summit.