Samar Zughool

Current occupation

Experiential Trainer and Community Art director

Work experience

1. Med dialogue for Rights and Equality 2022

As an experiential trainer and a Med dialogue leader, I developed and delivered training courses on the pedagogy of the oppressed using arts and its based techniques to stimulate critical thinking and emotional intelligence for gender and intercultural sensitivity learning, which resulted in the online campaign #RiseForGenderEquality and the Mediterranean declaration for gender equality that combines audio-visual materials and statements produced by the participants who took part in my training. The declaration advocates for gender equality in the Mediterranean region beyond borders and free of gender and ethnic profiling.

2. Anna Lindh Foundation Network for Euro-Med dialogue in Slovenia 2021 - 2022
From March to May 2022: I developed and implemented learning activities with an intercultural group of participants who come from different ethnic backgrounds and live in Slovenia; this was in the seminar and workshop “How intercultural learning may contribute to sustainable living?” which resulted in a published case study that documents the produced examples by the participants that use intercultural learning for sustainable living. At the end of the implementation, I developed and published the intercultural learning toolkit “intercultural learning for sustainable living” and the case study “How Intercultural learning contributes to sustainable living.”
From October to November 2021, I designed and implemented a training course using arts and its techniques to stimulate intercultural and gender sensitivity learning for identities beyond labels and free of anthropocentrism and gender and ethnic profiling. The training course resulted in the production of the “Reclaiming Our Mediterranean Identit(ies) community performance co-created and performed by the participants who identify as migrants and women living in Slovenia.

3. The Festival of Mediterranean Citizens 2022
In the first round of the Festival of the Mediterranean Festival in Catania in June 2022, I founded and implemented the SAMA community arts, a performative journey using performing arts and its based techniques for intercultural citizenship education through emotional intelligence and heart-based consciences free of gender and ethnic profiling.
Faces of Migration DEAR program 2019 to June 2022
I managed and implemented the training programs for capacity buildings in intercultural communication and dialogue. I wrote and published six research papers, four on social and labor integrations between communities. I delivered training courses on intercultural dialogue to combat hate speech, resulting in the production of two films made by the participants.

4. Be My Voice Euro-Med initiative for freedom of expression February to October 2021
I designed and delivered the “Be My Voice” training course in Slovenia, which resulted in a series of stories produced by the participants in forms of creative texts and performing arts as part of the Euro-Med platform for freedom of expression “Be My Voice” by Anna Lindh Foundation for Euro-Med dialogue.

5. “StorySilience” story-making and telling for resilient societies from 2020 to present
StorySilience is an Erasmus plus key Action Two, a strategic partnership-building program. As a leading trainer of Intellectual Output, two “Learning toolkit for story making and telling toward resilient societies,” I designed and delivered international training for CSOs staff who works with minorities in their countries. The training course combined decoding from the pedagogy of the oppressed as a generator of story-making with heart-based communication and the golden circle techniques for story-telling and vulnerability management for resilience and social change. Currently, I am coordinating and managing the cooperation between trainers from partner countries to produce the toolkit resilience through story-making and storytelling.

6. Founder of SIDE, Solidarity In Daily Efforts initiative of migrant women in Slovenia from 2021 to the present.
The SIDE collective, cooking and cleaning politics, cultures, religions, and arts, is a collective that hacks, hijacks, and re-creates cultural, artistic, religious, and political scenes from an intersectional feminist lens.
The SIDE collective is created and led by people who identify as migrant women in Slovenia, producing cultural, artistic, and creative events for resilient, inclusive communities.