Equality and Justice: An Engaged Conversation, a Troubled World

The Twiza Project emerged as a collaborative effort among faculty in North America, North Africa, and the Middle East. The project attempts to speak back to the sectarian divisions, often coupled with polarized debate, that have radicalized a politics seemingly premised on bigotry and hate. Such politics, the project believes, have led to an increase of hate crimes in local communities and a rise in global intolerance towards political/economic refugees. As such, project’s goal was to build platforms to allow young adults to respond to the human rights crises occurring locally, nationally, and internationally

The Twiza Project created a space in which to imagine, then build, an alternative future marked by greater cultural, economic, and political freedoms. As such, the project hopes to be part of collective efforts to build a public space in which everyone has the right and ability to participate. Indeed, the term “Twiza” speaks to the communal act of individuals coming together to build a material structure, such as barn or house, to support a neighbor. The term is intended to speak to the collective work of youth who actively work to build their societies and to build the material structures which can support human rights for everyone in their community.

“With this book, Twiza has succeeded in causing a crack in the fortress built by certain obsolete educational practices that tend, more often than not, to buckle from the inside, a community of practice that is eager and ready to develop collaborative outreach programmes. These extra-curricular activities constitute the soft skills universities continue to ignore. Through constant dialogue across borders of all sorts, Twiza will undoubtedly broaden the crack until all voices are heard to let a genuine civil society emerge, aware of its individual and collective engagement towards human rights. The envisaged result: a society more prone to commitment towards equity and justice. This is not dreamland. It is the sheer volume of the youth potential.” —Dr. Mohamed MILIANI Dip. TEFL, M.Ed, PhD, University of Oran – Algeria

“An ambitious yet fully realized project that truly embarks on transnational knowledge making, civil engagement, and cross-cultural dialogue through writing. The voices in this book demonstrate that undergraduate students have the ability to creatively enact social justice to develop a better world. They offer a deep hope for an improved global society. Equality and Justice is a must read for composition teachers who seek to engage their students in real-world matters and a must read for students who seek a vision for a different world.” — Dr. Rebecca Dingo, University of Massachusetts