Guestbook Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 "Promoting the power of digital storytelling as a means of healing divisions."[1] | |
| Founders | Richard Kearney and Sheila Gallagher[2] |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | Boston College |
| Location |
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| Membership | Anne Bernard Kearney, Moya Coulson, David Goodman, Jared Highlen, Fanny Howe, Sarah Kearney, Sarit Larry, Jim Morley, Brian O’Donovan, John Peto, Robert Savage, Yolande Steenkamp, James Taylor, Brian Treanor[3] |
| Elise Zoli, Petra Belkovic, Aidan Browne, Jean Duff, Paul Freaney, Mark Goodman, Joe Lambert, Esther Mombo, Siddhartha, Sue Schardt[4] | |
Key people | Richard Kearney, Sheila Gallagher, Peter Klapes, Melissa Fitzpatrick, Elise Zoli |
| Affiliations | European Center for the Study of War and Peace, teaching divided histories, School in a Box, Story Center, Global Unites, Utopia 500, Forum for Cities in Transition, Psychology and the Other, The Irish American Partnership, Boston College, Narrative 4, nervecentre[5] |
| Students | Noah Valdez, Urwa Hameed, Angelos Bougas |
| Website | https://guestbookproject.org/ |
The Guestbook Project is an international, non-profit housed at Boston College and directed by Richard Kearney and Sheila Gallagher.[6] Its mission is to transform hostility into hospitality through conversation and conflict resolution.[7]
The Guestbook Project began ten years with the intention of using the power of storytelling to heal divided communities and societies around the world.[8] To that end, Guestbook often features conversations of people from dissenting backgrounds, and attempts to have them share their side of the story, listen to the other side, and eventually come to “invent a new story together.”[9] The Guestbook Project has recorded several stories from divided groups around the world, including: Mitrovica (Kosovo), Derry (Northern Ireland), Jerusalem (Israel/Palestine), Bangalore (India), Dokdo (Japan/Korea), Cape Town (South Africa), and the Mexican-American border (El Centro).[10] At the moment, the Guestbook Project has over sixty storybites and documentaries on its online platform; the most recent of which being, Sheltering Strangers, which depicts the story of a Greek orphanage for Syrian refugee children.[11]
Guestbook team
| Title | Name |
|---|---|
| Co-Director | Richard Kearney |
| Co-Director | Sheila Gallagher |
| Executive Manager | Peter Klapes |
| Director of Pedagogy | Melissa Fitzpatrick |
| Director of Media | Kevin Sweet |
| Assistant Director of Media | Jared Highlen[12] |