Presented by Abby Gluckman, Greta Lynch, and Savannah Hauduc
Our workshop is aiming to educate and raise awareness about cultural humility and cross-cultural dynamics in the Bellingham community. Our workshop is framed to engage the Bellingham community in the ways our singular selves impact the places we travel – such that, our values and norms surrounding the ways in which we travel, must change in order to avoid the negative effects of voluntourism. This form of injustice is often masked by a false sense of helping those less fortunate, and hidden from our culture because our society isn’t impacted by our actions, rather, we are the ones impacting others.
Through the open conversation surrounding ethical travel, participants will feel encouraged to pursue their cross-cultural experiences in a way that does not negatively impact the communities in which they travel. The audience will feel a sense of empowerment upon understanding their significance and influence on others. It is important to change the ways in which our culture structures traveling by informing audiences on ethical ways to participate in different communities.
About the Presenters:
Abby Gluckman, Greta Lynch, and Savannah Hauduc are Western Washington University students who have recently studied abroad together in Rwanda, where we reflected on the impact our presence had on the remote village we were living in. Individually, we each have several experiences in different countries, allowing us to have in-depth understanding of our place and privilege in the world.
Primary Audience: adults – general, educators, human rights or social justice professionals; youth ages 13+