In the immediate aftermath of the 2017 presidential inauguration, two friends sat down for lunch against a backdrop of deep national division. Before they even took their first bite, they began unpacking their worst fears about the shifting political climate. They worried aloud about the increasingly harsh language circulating in the public square, particularly the divisive rhetoric bubbling up around immigrants and people of color. <\/p>\n
"We asked, ‘What are a minister and a professor of sociology supposed to do at this moment?’" recalled Roman Williams, the sociologist, who was teaching at Duke Divinity School at the time alongside the Rev. Michael Bos. <\/p>\n
"We emptied the lint out of our pockets," Williams said, describing the feeling of helplessness shared by many citizens seeking answers. "We were not famous people or rich people, but we wanted to bring what we had to bear on this problem."<\/p>\n
Before that lunch had ended, the two men had hatched a plan. They decided to harness a tool that most people already carried in their pockets\u2014the cameras on their smartphones\u2014to build genuine relationships and foster understanding between individuals who might not otherwise cross paths or engage in meaningful conversation.<\/p>\n
They named their nascent initiative "Interfaith Photovoice," a clear nod to Photovoice, a well-established sociological research method developed back in the 1990s. Traditional Photovoice asks participants to share personal photographs with the ultimate goal of giving marginalized groups a voice in their communities. Interfaith Photovoice adapts this core concept, deploying it deliberately between individuals representing different religious traditions, spiritual beliefs, and cultural backgrounds.<\/p>\n
"It\u2019s the idea that contact across differences can create positive impacts on people," Williams explained. "It changes them. They begin to ask questions of genuine curiosity; to see through the lens of other people and imagine ways their community might need to change so everyone can flourish, everyone can experience belonging."<\/p>\n
Williams recently offered a live demonstration of Interfaith Photovoice to student leaders and student affairs professionals from colleges and universities across the United States. The group had gathered in Chicago for Interfaith America\u2019s annual Interfaith Leadership Summit. During the session, Williams asked each attendee to share a personal photograph that exemplified their own personal definition of hope. <\/p>\n
Participants showed their chosen images to their tablemates, describing in detail what the specific photo meant to them. Once everyone at the table had shared their story, the floor opened up, allowing people to ask questions about the images and deeply explore the personal narratives hidden behind the pixels.<\/p>\n
Among the participants was Cameron Town, a 19-year-old Christian student attending the University of Northwestern, St. Paul. Town shared a memorable snapshot of himself and his best friend leaping directly into the frigid waters of Lake Superior on a day weather-wise better suited for polar bears than human swimmers.<\/p>\n
"I chose this photo because all five friends I was with that day are some of my longest, most cherished friends, and yet many of us disagree on many levels about really important issues," Town told the two female students he was paired with during the exercise. "At the end of the day\u2014none of it changes the fact of our love and kinship for one another."<\/p>\n
Following the session, Town reflected on the profound impact of the exercise, noting that he felt "a surprising sense of unity" with the two women, both of whom practiced different faiths. <\/p>\n
"That sense of togetherness\u2014despite being strangers\u2014really left an impact on me," he said.<\/p>\n
Since its inception in 2018, Interfaith Photovoice sessions have expanded significantly, taking place in communities across the United States and reaching as far away as Oman. The very first workshops, made possible by an initial grant, brought together Muslims and Christians in Richmond, Virginia; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia; and Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Williams was then serving as a professor at Calvin College. <\/p>\n
"We learned a ton about the method, a ton about the experience," Williams recalled. "By 2019, we realized we were on to something."<\/p>\n
Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing gatherings around the globe to pivot to virtual formats. Rather than halting the initiative\u2019s progress, Williams used the downtime to expand Interfaith Photovoice\u2019s reach far beyond its original Christian-Muslim demographic, adapting the curriculum for people of diverse faiths, worldviews, and cultural backgrounds. <\/p>\n
Today, Interfaith Photovoice routinely facilitates specialized workshops, retreats, and team-building exercises for higher education institutions, corporations, and non-profit organizations, primarily operating throughout the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n
The photographs brought forward by participants run a wide emotional and visual gamut, ranging from the lighthearted to the profound. Workshop participants have shared images of college friends hanging out alongside a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, sparkling sunsets cast over vast forest canopies, crowded family dinner tables, and goofy, lop-eared dogs. <\/p>\n
During the live demonstration in Chicago, Williams presented a photograph of an Amazon delivery truck parked in front of a residential house, prompting a dozen different interpretations from the audience. <\/p>\n
"How does this show hope to you?" he asked the room. <\/p>\n
One participant saw the happy anticipation of a package containing an item they had long wished for. Another found reassurance in the truck’s official "green vehicle" emissions sticker affixed to the body. Someone else pointed out the striking, artistic reflection of light bouncing off the vehicle’s metal bumper. <\/p>\n
Importantly, darker, more systemic issues were not brushed aside or avoided. More than one person voiced immediate concern regarding the driver’s working conditions, long hours, and the broader socioeconomic plight of low-wage delivery employees.<\/p>\n
This dynamic inquiry represents the hidden strength of Interfaith Photovoice\u2014leveraging the absolute ubiquity of personal smartphone photography combined with a shared human desire to imbue everyday images with personal and communal meaning.<\/p>\n
"Interfaith Photovoice is an invitation to wonder," said Kyle Kooyers, director of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "It brings us into a place of inquisitiveness about the person across from us and that really does bring us into a profound place of human connections."<\/p>\n
In 2024, a vital grant provided by the Kaufman Institute helped underwrite a semester-long Interfaith Photovoice workshop series hosted at Grand Valley State University, a prominent public institution featuring multiple campuses across the Grand Rapids area. During one core exercise, a cohort of nine students representing Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and secular backgrounds were tasked with capturing photographs that honestly expressed what it felt like to live out their spiritual and philosophical lives on the GVSU campus.<\/p>\n
"We got into questions of where they were experiencing barriers to expressing their faith or feeling like they belonged on campus or in their communities," explained Liz English, campus program manager for the university\u2019s interfaith center. "Those were some wonderful sessions."<\/p>\n
A similar, semester-long Interfaith Photovoice program is currently active and running at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Much like other regional iterations of Interfaith Photovoice workshops, this program is designed to culminate in public photography exhibitions. These exhibits give student creators a platform to directly interact with community viewers, discussing their artwork and the intimate personal stories that informed every shutter click.<\/p>\n
The ultimate hope, according to Williams, is that these public exhibitions will actively advance pluralism on college campuses in ways that traditional lectures, dense academic textbooks, or even the time-tested adage about "walking a mile in another\u2019s shoes" simply cannot achieve.<\/p>\n
"These days we need to learn to walk a mile in one another\u2019s views so we can be prepared to live together in community called university life," Williams said. "That visual dimension opens a different side of us, and it allows us to think creatively and compassionately about ourselves and others so we aren\u2019t just sitting in a circle and singing ‘Kumbaya.’"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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