Women With Impact #34 - Kim Samuel
Welcome back to Women With Impact, a newsletter all about the journeys of mission-driven women and how they have a positive impact in our world.
I’m Clara Richter and this is the 34th edition of Women With Impact. If you enjoy this issue, please share it with a friend and like it above.
For this edition, I interviewed Kim Samuel, author, educator, and leading voice in the global movement to fight social isolation. Kim brought to life a course in the study of social isolation at McGill University, and regularly lectures at institutions including the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the London School of Economics. As the founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, Kim partners with leading advocacy groups and research institutions with the goal to build sustainable systems of belonging. Moreover, she is the author of “On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation”, where she explores the crisis of social isolation and humanity's right to belong.
Wishing you a pleasant read!
Best,
Clara
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The Journey
Who are you and how do you spend your time?
I’m a passionate messenger for a powerful idea. I’ve spent 20 years on different continents exploring the meaning of belonging and how to cultivate it in an age where people feel increasingly isolated. Even though I’ve built a career as a teacher and researcher on this subject of ‘belonging,’ I’m also a student. That’s because ‘belonging’ is something unique and personal to each and every person. So — when I’m not spending time playing with my granddaughter — I’m working to understand how people find belonging, and I’m spreading the idea that we need to prioritise belonging if humanity is to survive and thrive.
What do you think is most important in creating positive change?
Imagination. In times of crisis, we can often feel like imagination is a fanciful luxury. But, to build a better future, we need the capacity to envision creative and wildly optimistic future possibilities. We need to cultivate the skill of dreaming. This isn’t to denigrate the value of clear perception or hard work. Imagination is a necessary complement to these virtues. I think of one of my heroes, the late Dr. Paul Farmer, who imagined what it would mean to enact healthcare as a human right on a global basis. And then — in partnership with others — he did the work to save lives and radically transform health systems in line with his positive vision.
What is a recent success you are proud of?
I used to dream about the possibility of a global movement for belonging — a network of people around the world who share a vision and share a practical commitment to ending social isolation in its various manifestations. Over the past decade, this dream has started to become something real. At the most recent Global Symposium that my colleagues and I organised, I looked at a large meeting hall filled with artists, advocates, researchers, community organisers, Indigenous teachers, Special Olympics athletes, people on the frontlines of environmental crises and conflicts, among others— all sharing ideas and best practices for building belonging. I can point to dozens of specific successes this movement has achieved. But the success that delights me the most is the simple fact that this movement has become a reality.
The Lessons
What has been the most rewarding experience on your journey?
Teaching. Growing up, I didn’t plan to become a professor at a major university. While I have always been interested in research and ideas, I always saw my role as more practice-oriented. But when I got the opportunity to teach a course at McGill University on the topic of addressing social isolation on a global basis, I found that teaching could be something different than I imagined. I worked to curate a ‘caring classroom’ that was all about holding space for people to be honest and authentic and connect with one another in the pursuit of solutions. This was ultimately so rewarding because I saw many talented young people take the cause of belonging forward in creative and skilful ways in their own careers.
What’s a challenge you have encountered most often and how did you tackle it?
In my current work, people often misunderstand isolation or belonging as narrow concepts. The current crisis of ‘loneliness’ around the world is serious — and it’s a topic that I’ve worked on extensively. Yet it’s only one element of the challenge of isolation that humanity is facing today. Overcoming isolation means achieving belonging — which, in my definition, means connection in terms of 4 P’s: people, place, power, and purpose. This is to say that belonging comes through our relationships with other people as well as through our rootedness in nature, our ability to influence social, political and economic decision-making, and our capacity to find shared meaning and purpose in our lives. I know this is a sweeping concept that encompasses so many aspects of the human experience. But, to build belonging, it’s important for me to convey the full sweep of its meaning.
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
One of the unexpected honours of writing my book On Belonging was travelling to Port Royal, Kentucky to interview the great farmer-poet-philosopher Wendell Berry on his family farm. Berry has written dozens of books across genres and inspired generations of people to live in greater harmony with nature. He shared with me three words of advice for my book that came to be a kind of lodestar for me: “Don’t be prescriptive,” he said. To build a movement for belonging, you can’t be ‘prescriptive’ because you have to honour that every person has their own experience of belonging and their own way of bringing this experience into the world.
The Inspiration
What resource do you think more people should make use of?
There’s a two-word quote in my book from E.M. Forster: “Only Connect!” It’s a reminder that connection is the essence of what makes us human. While I have decidedly mixed views about the impacts of social media and ubiquitous internet on humanity, I do feel extraordinarily grateful that we can reach out to any friend, colleague, or loved one virtually anytime. This is a resource we should use. When you think of a person fondly, let them know. When you have a reason to connect, do it. Pick up the phone. Write a text. Shared an interesting article or a silly joke. Connection is the royal road to wellbeing.
Who inspires you on your journey the most?
Graça Machel is best known as the widow of the late great Nelson Mandela. But before becoming the first lady of South Africa, she was also a government minister and first lady in her home country of Mozambique. She’s had extraordinary achievements in helping to realise the universal right to education and addressing the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Yet she inspires me because she’s brought a vision of belonging into public policy for decades. For her, belonging is not a new philosophy or idea. It’s the intuitive vision and fundamental worldview that she brings into every one of her interactions and professional efforts. It’s a profound honour for me to get to call her a mentor.
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