Exploring new ways forward.
Our shorter trainings invite participants to share their own knowledge and experiences, from both professional and personal settings, in order to develop their critical, reflexive and analytical thinking. Through sharing and analysing real, lived, experiences, we are better able to see complexities and nuances, and trace new paths ahead, based on where we come from.
The overall objective for the shorter trainings is for participants to find new, more just, ways of acting in their roles as researchers, journalists and documentarians, civil society actors and policymakers.
Recent work:
In 2023, we organised a residency in Saida in southern Lebanon, where we created audio stories about migration in the city. The podcast/audioguide, which will be online and available for anyone to listen to while walking through the city, will be released in 2024. We also hosted our second summer workshop in 2023, with participants from many different countries. A publication with stories created during the workshop will be produced and printed in 2024.
A typical outline for our shorter trainings, adapted each time:
Day 1.
Day 2.
Past trainings in Lebanon:
New reflections on exile and migration
From 2018 to 2021, we have organised eight workshops with over 100 participants from different parts of Lebanon, including people of many different nationalities and backgrounds. The workshops, which bring together people from across the fields of journalism and civil society, are held over the course of two or three days. The program includes sessions on self-reflection and discussion, sharing of professional and personal experiences, and critical media analysis. To date, Switch Perspective workshops have been held in Beirut, Zahle, Hammana and Tripoli.
Audio storytelling workshop
In November 2021, Switch Perspective organised a residency in El Mina, Tripoli, in northern Lebanon. Storytellers from different backgrounds, including journalism and civil society, took part in the five-day residency devoted to producing an audio guide with stories on migration located in different neighbourhoods in El Mina.
Topics ranged from Tripoli’s famous sweets and seaside boat restaurants to the history of Lebanon’s defunct railway and how to stay in touch with loved ones far away. In December, a walk was held in El Mina where each story was told live to an audience. An audio guide with all stories is under production, and will be available for people to listen to and do the walk on their own.
The Alternative Academy
In spring 2019, we held a seven-week course in Beirut, as part of The Alternative Academy, a joint Lebanon Support–Jibal initiative to offer scientific and other knowledge to everyone. Switch Perspective held sessions once a week in collaboration with writer and founder of The Outpost magazine Ibrahim Nehme. The Alternative Academy course included sessions on stereotypes and power structures in the media as well as specific sessions on pitching and creative writing.
Find more information about the course, including a detailed outline of the content, here.