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WHAT IF: Peace Began in Everyday Acts?- Uzbek Women, Islam & Peacebuilding


Show Notes:

 In this What If conversation, we explore what peacebuilding can look like in everyday life — through the stories and experiences of Uzbek women within Muslim communities.


In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, this episode highlights perspectives from Central Asia, offering a deeper understanding of how faith, culture, and community shape the ways women contribute to healing, connection, and peace. Through lived experiences, we reflect on how acts of care, compassion, and presence can become powerful forms of peacebuilding.


This conversation invites us to listen to the quiet, meaningful ways peace is practiced in daily life.


This episode is part of our AAPI Heritage Month series and is sponsored by Asian Theological Institute whose support makes these conversations possible.


Dr. Zulfiya Tursunova is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She received her Ph.D. from the Arthur V. Mauro Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of Manitoba.


She serves as the faculty advisor to the Muslim Student Association, fostering interfaith dialogue and offering workshops on understanding Islamophobia, racial bias, and cultural diversity.


Through these initiatives, she works to create inclusive spaces for dialogue, mutual understanding, belonging, and community engagement on campus.


She also serves on the International Advisory Committee affiliated with the City of Greensboro Human Rights Department, where she supports initiatives that assist immigrant and refugee communities.


At Guilford College, Dr. Tursunova teaches courses on peace and conflict studies, social justice, mass atrocities and genocide prevention, international politics and international relations, and global development.


She also mentors students in community-engaged and interdisciplinary research and promotes service to the community.


Dr. Tursunova’s interdisciplinary research focuses on women’s empowerment, Islam and community-based peacebuilding, and social transformation in Uzbekistan and the broader Central Asian region.


Her Ph.D. dissertation examines women’s religious leadership and the role of faith in addressing socio-economic challenges, with particular attention to women’s rituals and spaces of empowerment.


Her research culminates in a book Women’s Lives and Livelihoods in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: Ceremonies of Empowerment and Peacebuilding that examines women’s faith-based peacebuilding practices and economic resilience in Uzbekistan. 



Your host is Jaclyn Tyson. For more information about Sacred Tea and Nourished Souls, visit www.soubirdcenter.com.


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