On November 16, the multicultural office at Middlesex welcomed Mr. Amer Ahmed to campus. Mr. Ahmed is the incoming Director of the Intercultural Teaching and Faculty Development at UMASS Amherst. He is the first speaker in this year’s MX Spectrum Dialogues, a mini lecture series devoted to equity, justice, and inclusion. Speaking in the Terry Room, Mr. Ahmed engaged the community in a discussion of Islamophobia. The students enjoyed his interactive program, and especially relished the opportunity to dine with him prior to the lecture and speak with him after the lecture concluded.
Mr. Ahmed is an individual with an eclectic personal and professional experience. As an intercultural diversity consultant, college administrator, facilitator, poet and Hip Hop activist, he channels his diverse experiences into work geared towards effective change serving to create mutual benefit for all. Born in Springfield, Ohio to Indian Muslim immigrants, Mr. Ahmed has dedicated his life to engaging and facilitating diversity across human difference. His studies in Anthropology and Black Studies have been enhanced by powerful study abroad experiences in South Africa and Nepal. Mr. Ahmed’s education, world experiences and his Indian-Muslim-American upbringing helps him understand the need for respect and dignity of all people.
Mr. Ahmed has been featured on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris Perry” show and in “Cracking the Codes,” a documentary film on racism directed by Dr. Shakti Butler. No matter what the venue, Mr. Ahmed is deeply committed to the empowerment of young people through unique approaches that seek to unlock their creative potential, and he is committed to lifting voices of the youth to create transformative change in the world. During dinner, the lecture, and the Q&A, Mr. Ahmed broached some of the most pressing and complicated issues facing our society today with grace and dignity, and he challenged the Middlesex community to do likewise.