Shaping the Future of Empathy and Innovation: The Vuslat Foundation Fellowship for Generous Listening at MIT
Supporting the advancement of knowledge and research in generous listening through the Transformative Storytelling Initiative - Vuslat Foundation Fellowship at MIT.
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Shaping the Future of Empathy and Innovation: The Vuslat Foundation Fellowship for Generous Listening at MIT
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Supporting the advancement of knowledge and research in generous listening through the Transformative Storytelling Initiative - Vuslat Foundation Fellowship at MIT.
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Vuslat Foundation, in collaboration with MIT’s Transmedia Storytelling Initiative, proudly introduced the “Vuslat Foundation Fellowship for Generous Listening” in 2022. This groundbreaking fellowship represented a unique blend of academic scholarship and the practice of generous listening.
We invited applications from advanced graduate students. The process required applicants to illustrate how their work would engage interpersonal tools like attentiveness, curiosity, and openness. The proposals were expected to demonstrate how listening – to communities, stories, data, nature, or more-than-human entities – would contribute to their project’s objectives.
Research Themes and Questions The fellowship encouraged exploration in various thematic areas, including:
- Spaces of Listening: Examining the role of digital and physical spaces in listening and the opportunities transmedia presents for crafting spaces of generous listening.
- Novel Ways of Listening: Investigating how technology can reimagine listening methods, including listening to non-human species and processing sonic information.
- Transformation Through Listening: Encouraging proposals that encompass transformational change through generative listening.
- Listening to the Non-Human: Focusing on listening as a means to understand environmental issues and the more-than-human world.
- Listening to Each Other: Addressing ways to overcome polarization through generous listening and communicative exchange.
- Applications in Architecture and Urban Planning: Exploring unique listening approaches in engaging stakeholders and contributing data in these fields.
The winning proposal, awarded to Mona Vijaykumar (SMArchS 2022) and Gabriela Degetau (SMArchS 2022), stood out for its visionary approach to climate adaptation. Their project, “Climate Imaginaries: Co-designing Living Archives of Deep Listening,” aims to construct a “living archive” or a collaborative communication infrastructure that fosters generous listening. This exceptional initiative is designed to facilitate climate adaptation by harnessing the collective wisdom and insights gathered through deep, empathetic engagement with various narratives and data.
The Vuslat Foundation Fellowship for Generous Listening at MIT is a critical milestone in our ongoing effort to promote generous listening and transformative storytelling. By backing groundbreaking research and scholarly pursuits, we are committed to cultivating a culture of profound listening and understanding, setting the stage for significant social, environmental, and communicative advancements.
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