Creative Writing for Social Change: Creating Spaces for Cross-Cultural Empathy
Institutional Affiliation
Nova Southeastern University
Start Date
January 2026
End Date
January 2026
Proposal Type
Presentation
Proposal Format
On-campus
Proposal Description
Andy Pring is the founder of Creative Writing for Social Change (CWSC), a UK-based organization which connects people across the globe through small groups which share and write about social injustices and issues they have personally experienced. In the post-9/11 atmosphere, Islamophobia exploded on university campuses and in the wider community, even in the UK. At that time, Andy, the son of Christian missionaries, was studying an elective in Islamic studies at a UK university. To combat the ignorance and prejudice which ultimately caused the Islamophobia, Andy and his professor, an Egyptian scholar, became co-chairs of the university’s first Christian-Muslim dialogue group. These weekly meetings over two years taught Andy the power of forming deep and trusting relationships through the process of personal storytelling. After graduating, Andy spent the first part of his career working in counterterrorism. The creation of “in groups” and “out groups” are essential parts of radicalization, justifying terrorism. Counter-radicalization and de-radicalization work to enable the “in group” to humanize the “out group”. The most effective way to achieve this is to develop empathy for those they had been taught to hate. Through storytelling, writers who take part in CWSC share intimate stories about challenges and triumphs from their lives. Told well, stories create empathy with the narrative and the protagonist. When the protagonist is from a demographic that would be considered by the listener or reader to be part of the “out group”, then the false dichotomy of “us versus them” is challenged, undermined and exposed for the fallacy it is.
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/="/">This is the basis of CWSC, creating virtual spaces for writers from the global south and north to be able to meet, listen, interact, and most importantly, share their experiences of social issues and injustices with each other to promote empathy and diminish prejudices.
COinS
Jan 15th, 1:30 PM
Jan 15th, 3:00 PM
Creative Writing for Social Change: Creating Spaces for Cross-Cultural Empathy
Andy Pring is the founder of Creative Writing for Social Change (CWSC), a UK-based organization which connects people across the globe through small groups which share and write about social injustices and issues they have personally experienced. In the post-9/11 atmosphere, Islamophobia exploded on university campuses and in the wider community, even in the UK. At that time, Andy, the son of Christian missionaries, was studying an elective in Islamic studies at a UK university. To combat the ignorance and prejudice which ultimately caused the Islamophobia, Andy and his professor, an Egyptian scholar, became co-chairs of the university’s first Christian-Muslim dialogue group. These weekly meetings over two years taught Andy the power of forming deep and trusting relationships through the process of personal storytelling. After graduating, Andy spent the first part of his career working in counterterrorism. The creation of “in groups” and “out groups” are essential parts of radicalization, justifying terrorism. Counter-radicalization and de-radicalization work to enable the “in group” to humanize the “out group”. The most effective way to achieve this is to develop empathy for those they had been taught to hate. Through storytelling, writers who take part in CWSC share intimate stories about challenges and triumphs from their lives. Told well, stories create empathy with the narrative and the protagonist. When the protagonist is from a demographic that would be considered by the listener or reader to be part of the “out group”, then the false dichotomy of “us versus them” is challenged, undermined and exposed for the fallacy it is.
/="/">
/="/">This is the basis of CWSC, creating virtual spaces for writers from the global south and north to be able to meet, listen, interact, and most importantly, share their experiences of social issues and injustices with each other to promote empathy and diminish prejudices.