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<\/a>Givens grew up in Spokane, Wash., did her undergrad at Stanford University and PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her first job was at University of Washington, in Seattle, then she and her husband moved to Austin, where their careers took off. Before UBC, Givens worked at McGill University, first as a lead and advisor on the university\u2019s plan to address anti-Black racism, then as an associate dean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She started studying the radical right in Europe in the mid-1990s, having first become aware of their existence in 1986, when she visited France as an undergrad. At that time, Jean-Marie Le Pen was on the rise.<\/p>\n \u201cI was one of the first Americans to even pay attention to this topic,\u201d said Givens, who added that all her research is \u201creally about how do we create change \u2013 that\u2019s the underlying push for all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n The professor shared some of her personal history, how she was raised, her father\u2019s death in 2001, instances of racism experienced by her parents\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013 her mother, who grew up in rural Louisiana in the 1930s, and her dad, who was born in 1928 near Pittsburgh. Her parents met in Los Angeles but chose to live in Spokane because they thought it would be safer for their kids.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, in telling my story, I\u2019m trying to talk about the different identities we have,\u201d she said. For example, she is a mom, a teacher, an athlete, and more.<\/p>\n For Givens, integrity also has multiple variations. There\u2019s physical integrity, taking care of ourselves. There\u2019s integrity in terms of being honest and straightforward. And there\u2019s integrity in terms of having a solid foundation.<\/p>\n Identity and integrity come into play with radical empathy, which comprises, according to Givens, six steps: a willingness to be vulnerable, becoming grounded in who you are, opening yourself to the experiences of others, practising empathy, taking action, and creating change and building trust.<\/p>\n About the first step, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s not about being vulnerable with others, it\u2019s about\u00a0 <\/span>being vulnerable with yourself\u2026. We have a really hard time [with that] \u2013 even just giving ourself a pat on the back is hard\u2026. But the reason that\u2019s so important is \u2026 you need to become grounded in who you are, and that\u2019s an ongoing process.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking care of yourself and being grounded in yourself allows you to be open to others, she said.<\/p>\n Radical empathy is circular, said Givens. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant movement towards becoming who you want to be. You want to have goals for yourself that reach beyond where you are now, but also you want to have a process to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n We can tap into our integrity, she said, by telling our story, where we fit in family, community, education, health, love and marriage, relationships, and work.<\/p>\n \u201cEmpathy is not absolution,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean I have to\u00a0 <\/span>say everything is OK\u2026. Sometimes, people do things that I don\u2019t believe are good for anybody. And so, that\u2019s an important component and, for me, it helps me tap into my integrity because I have to create those boundaries and make sure that I understand where I fit into this broader picture and in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n As she ages, the health aspect is something she is dealing with more. \u201cMy dad had a heart attack at 72, my mom had a stroke at 75. Why those things happen, how to understand that, is a big part of our ability to\u00a0 <\/span>function.\u201d<\/p>\n With respect to love and marriage, she said, \u201cWhen people ask me what\u2019s important in the relationship, it\u2019s, well, you want to be with somebody who makes you a better person. And that it\u2019s reciprocal.\u201d<\/p>\n This is something that applies to relationships in general, she added.<\/p>\n \u201cWork is a huge part of our lives. I think sometimes we forget how important it is to make sure that our work is something that, regardless of what you do, you take pride in it. It may be something that you don\u2019t want to be doing\u00a0 <\/span>forever but, where you are right now, it\u2019s important that your work is a part of your story.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We can\u2019t change the past, but we can change how we go forward, Givens said. \u201cThere are these lifelong self-reflection processes that help us learn from the people around us, whether they\u2019re clients or colleagues or friends, and cultural humility is being willing to say I don\u2019t know everything.\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cToo many leaders are full of themselves. It\u2019s good to be modest about your capabilities. And here\u2019s where\u00a0 <\/span>vulnerability comes in. You have to be willing to admit mistakes. And I really believe that, if you have integrity, that\u2019s not so difficult, to admit mistakes \u2013 it\u2019s like, I\u2019m a human being, I\u2019m not perfect, and [having an] awareness of bias\u2026. We know that the system is set up often in a biased way and we talk about meritocracy but what does that mean? It\u2019s not just that you hire people who look like you or are really similar to you \u2013 it\u2019s being willing to look beyond that and say, no, this person is the best person for the job even though we don\u2019t have a whole lot in common.\u201d<\/p>\n Givens spoke about having a curiosity about others, having an open mindset, listening without judgment and seeking, with empathy, to understand people. \u201cAnd then, cultural intelligence is being attentive to other cultures and to adapt as required.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the question-and-answer period, Duhan-Kaplan asked about mistakes made by our ancestors, and how we deal with them. She also asked about dealing with the expectations \u201cplaced on us in a charged environment \u2013 we might open social media for some entertainment and then what we get is, whatever perspective we have, people are ridiculing it and calling us names,\u201d said Duhan-Kaplan. \u201cCultural humility \u2013 once you start to get defensive about yourself and your identity, how do you keep being open to changing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI still struggle with that,\u201d said Givens.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a person who\u2019s been racialized, who has ancestors who were enslaved, and yet I have ancestors who were killing Indigenous and pushing Indigenous out of their homelands,\u201d she explained, \u201cone of the things I\u2019m coming to is that we\u2019re a sum of all of this \u2013 and all of us are\u2026. And, again, it comes back to acceptance. I have to accept the fact that, if I look in my family history, there are these evil people and there are some really good people.\u201d<\/p>\n History is ugly, she concluded. \u201cI think it\u2019s better to know it and understand it and be willing to say, but I\u2019m here to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n For Givens, the opposite of empathy is apathy because apathy allows us to feel badly about what\u2019s happening but then just throw up our hands and say, \u201cthe world is crazy, you can\u2019t do anything.\u201d Her books highlight ways that people can get involved, what they can do, and she incorporates taking action into everything she does, she said.<\/p>\n Ultimately, it\u2019s the actions, the outcomes, and the way we are engaging with the world that is important, said Givens.<\/p>\n Vancouver School of Theology is offering Summer School courses that will be of particular interest to Jewish community members: Rabbi Or Rose teaches Mystics in Modernity, Rabbi David Seidenberg\u2019s class is Kabbalistic Hints in Tanakh, and Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan presents Zechariah: Spiritual Activism for Difficult Times. Classes run July 21-25 at VST or online. Register at vst.edu\/vst-summer-school<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Terri Elizabeth Givens, professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, started her lecture with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: \u201cIt takes empathy, patience and compassion to overcome anger, hatred and resentment.\u201d \u201cAnd this really rings true during these times,\u201d said Givens, who was giving the keynote address at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2703,23,24103,24102,5965,5660],"class_list":["post-46897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-empathy","tag-laura-duhan-kaplan","tag-school-of-theology","tag-terri-elizabeth-givens","tag-theology","tag-vst"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}