Fellow in Focus: Dr. Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi
Founder and Executive Director of WoW e.V./ Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Portland
“I applied to become a Global People’s Fellow because I believe in representational justice.”
Our Global People’s Fellows are a cohort of 45 innovative, action-orientated and visionary individuals from 33 countries around the world. Global People’s Fellows amplify voices, celebrate innovation and drive conversations around international development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through our blog series “Global People’s Fellows in Focus” we have been finding out more about what motivates them to reimaginine a world in which every single person is part of the solution to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems.
Lara-Zuzan is a scholar-practitioner who established a United Nations-awarded non-profit NGO while completing her PhD in politics at The New School for Social Research in New York. She is a visionary social justice advocate known for innovative ideas that connect theory and practice in policy and scholarship.
James A Baldwin once said, “People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed.” I don’t believe in paying a high price for inaction, especially when the alternative comes with the possibility of actively pursuing justice. Inaction, to me, is not an option.
I believe that injustice is at the heart of many challenges our world faces today. As a scholar of politics, I draw my understanding of injustice, or more so justice, from political philosophy. I believe, as John Rawls did, that human agents have a ‘sense of justice’ disposing them to act rightly, to cooperate with others, and to resent perceived injustices. It is up to us to ‘do justice’ to ourselves and others. Doing justice must not be conceived in an abstract and idealized manner though, rather it must be rooted in action-driven principles. In this way, I agree with Amartya Sen — we must seek a framework for a practice of justice that concentrates on advancement and that is based on realization.
For me, the ‘sense of justice’ runs deep — above and beyond any philosophy. It’s something to long for. It is a matter of heart. The feeling of having been wronged, or having been treated unjustly, is something most do not take lightly. Indeed, the concept of justice is loved and admired, whether it’s in the courtroom of a TV show or on the streets during a protest. Justice is something that is held dearly and the reality of an unjust world, the one in which we live in today, ignites in me a desire to reimagine justice.
I applied to become a Global People’s Fellow because I believe in representational justice. Representation is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many voices are left behind because of a lack of representation ‘at the table’. I believe that the SDGs can only be perceived, understood, and addressed if representation is guaranteed. It is essential to understand the diverse needs and interests of our communities in order to develop comprehensive strategies to address the challenges faced in the world today.
When I am teaching, on the first day of class, I always ask my students: What do you care about? The answers tend to overlap with at least one, if not several, SDGs. I believe that these goals become personal when we ask ourselves: What do I care about?
For me, the Sustainable Development Goals become personal when I act on what I care about. Whether it is in my work as a scholar, educator, or activist. The SDGs inform the strategies that I develop to address global challenges, and they shape the policy positions that I take to make a difference. To me, the SDGs provide a framework to take action on the global, national, and local level. This said, the intersectionality of the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be stressed enough. In my work I engage with a variety of intersecting Sustainable Development Goals, most notably SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reducing Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).
It is vitally important that we find ways to put all people at the center of decision making. As the executive director and founder of a non-profit human rights NGO that addresses employment rights of Muslim immigrants and refugees in Germany, I am very familiar with the concept of being ‘talked about’, rather than ‘talked with’. Gaining a seat at the table has been a major challenge for the community. Negative images and preconceived notions dominate the discourse at the expense of any genuine dialogue and engagement with the community. By participating in the Global People’s Summit fellowship programme I hope to change that!
Join Lara-Zuzan and thousands of others around the world at this year’s Global People’s Summit. Together we can challenge the world to think differently, act boldly, and inspire solutions to the world’s biggest problems.
