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As a television and film studies major at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Egyptian college student Sarah AlNemr understands the complicated role media plays in society.
On one hand, media has the ability to reinforce fears and stereotypes, on the other hand it can also enable shared dialogue, which can help facilitate positive social change. AlNemr first came to Salzburg in the summer of 2017 for the three-week Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, a longrunning program of Salzburg Global Seminar that promotes media literacy and global citizenship. While attending the session, which was that year titled Voices Against Extremism: Media Responses to Global Populism, AlNemr and the other student participants created a multimedia “playbook” to facilitate cross-cultural conversations about populism and extremism.
She described her experience as “amazing”, as she was able to meet people from around the world. Since attending the Academy, AlNemr says, “I am far more comfortable being here with a group of people that I’ve never met… Being introduced to so many different perspectives and different terminology, just a lot of different ideas, makes you think more about the world.”
Based on her thoughtful contributions while attending the Academy, AlNemr was invited to return to Salzburg for a second time and bring her youth perspective to the Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Program.
AlNemr states that she wanted to attend the Program because of her desire to learn about the topic of extremism. “I’m really trying to understand a lot more about it [extremism] because it’s very vital to our existence. It’s not something that we talk about.” She continues, “it’s [important] for me to understand more about the world, to understand how things happen and why conflicts happen.”
Although they were different, AlNemr identifies connections between the two sessions. She describes both as “experimental” and “very raw.” She sees the sessions as vital to dismantling current worldviews and systems as well as crucial components to understanding the importance of gaining “different perspectives on how things could be.”
She now plans to incorporate her new insights from Salzburg into future filmmaking projects. She highlights the importance of examining “different contexts, having different cultures, having different histories, …and different explanations of one story, of one history,” and she believes that doing so, “really gives you a lot of perspective on how you can use that in film.”
Sarah AlNemr is a Fellow of the Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Program. This multi-year series is held in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with further support from Ronald D. Abramson, the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria, The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. More information is available here: holocaust.salzburgglobal.org