Episode 39: Student Experience Grant Specials - Thiu

In this special entitled 'Voices of World Christianity', Thiu discusses conversations with friends, finding people who understand us, and missing out on coffee catch-ups. 

Each episode is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of five inspiring people who did exceptional things, unexpected things, things that transformed them during their time at Edinburgh.

The people who share their reflections have set up businesses, shared their passions with others, designed projects to make a difference, expanded their skills, travelled far and pushed themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of.

For this special edition of Multi Story, the experiences our guests share all have one thing in common: support from a grants scheme, funded by Edinburgh alumni and friends. Student Experience Grants have been supporting staff and student projects at the University of Edinburgh for 10 years. To celebrate this milestone we wanted to reflect on some of the inspiring things our students have achieved.

Find out more about the Student Experience Grants at:
www.ed.ac.uk/student-experience-grants

Transcript

[Theme music]  

00:07 
This is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of five inspiring people, people who did exceptional things, unexpected things, things that transformed them during that time at Edinburgh. 

00:23 
Hello, my name is Thiu, my longer name is Rathiulung. I come from the northeastern state of Manipur, in India. And I belong to a people group, a tribe called the Nagas, and under the Nagas, I come from the Zeliangrong sub-tribe. So that's the community that I'm from. I'm doing my PhD at the University of Edinburgh at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity. I'm currently looking at expressions of grassroot religion, grassroot Christianity, and the interfaces with indigenous life world among the Naga tribes in Manipur northeast India. I think my interest in World Christianity stems from my own experiences, as a practising Christian myself. I have a lot of interest in understanding what exactly is Christianity. I think growing up, we have this sort of a version in which we tend to think that the centre of Christianity, the flow of Christianity moves from the West to us, and so there's this perspective in which we are looking to the West for sort of inspiration for learning. And all that is fine, but I think as as I grew up, as I matured, it's part of my biographical pursuit as well, to understand how Christianity is so much more complex than that, it is indeed a global religion in the sense that it is, you see it everywhere, everywhere in the world, but it's also a very much a local expression. And so my project really is kind of a pursuit of that, trying to understand the local expressions of Christianity. But in a more broader sense of having read the histories of Christianity, or having read the history of other religions, for that matter, you begin to realise that previous narratives that that used to be more popular, I guess, are not so true. And it's been a real joy, to learn about these things from my friends and colleagues, and of course, from books and from academics, who are bringing these things to light, that Christianity is so much more complex and World Christianity as a discipline really explores that complexity that colour. And so that has been a real treat, to explore and to understand.  

02:32 
Three of us, three friends, we started this podcast, and it's called 'Voices of World Christianity'. And it's mainly looking at issues and topics as they relate to World Christianity. We always have these really fun, interesting conversations at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, and we have these seminars where all these really brilliant topics and contexts are talked about. And I always wonder, 'Well, how great it would be to have these conversations made available for other people who might be interested to hear more'. And so we chatted and we started this podcast in which we can talk, we can bring in, feature guests and talk about these issues, these topics. And every episode we attempt to bring in somebody who knows the topic or the context that we're talking about, and really to have that same experience of learning and exposure to these realities of World Christianity. And so we are envisioning that this podcast can be a channel of letting these information out into the public for those who are interested to learn. So that's the podcast project that we've just started. We're aiming at a year, and we'll see how it goes from there.  

03:43 
The most recent episode that we had uploaded is on digital theology, the digital world and how that relates or accentuates, how it affects World Christianity really. And so that's one of the topics, how digitality and the explosion of the internet, and technologies, how that has affected the flow of influence, the flow of theological influence or practices, how these are affected by the internet, and by digitality. So that's one of the topics that we explored in the most recent episode. Other topics can be gender, issues of gender, and sexuality, and how that plays out, how that relates in World Christianity. And we've got other interesting topics like decolonising Christianity, we are looking forward to that topic. And we're thinking hard on who to invite because I think that's an important topic.  

04:34 
I think a great conversation is where the parties involved are listening to one another, and bouncing off one another's words. Whereas, I think in a lecture form, or in a more unidirectional conversation it's just one person's opinion. But I think in an actual conversation, there is enriching that happens because both persons from different contexts with different perspectives, come and talk about a particular thing. And there's a certain deepening for both parties involved, I think. And again, that's a hard ask, that's a hard thing to aim and to strive for but we do hope that our podcast conversations can take place in that manner. 

05:16 
It helped that all of us were from different contexts. One of us is a British Zomi, the other is an American Chinese and myself I'm from, I'm a Naga from India. And so we bring all of our preferences, all of our different sets of categories and interests together, and we, it's quite basic, actually, the process of putting it together. But we just brainstormed and put all of our thoughts together. And we realised that we all bring different aspects of World Christianity. And so that itself has been an interesting learning experience for us.  

05:52 
I would like to say that anybody would be able to enjoy the podcast, because it concerns the dynamics between local and global, and all that stuff. So I think anybody would be able to enjoy the podcast. That's what we believe.  

06:03 
I think the community at the centre and broadly in New College, which is the School of Divinity is quite diverse. And World Christianity, of course, the faculty, and the PhD student community is quite diverse. We've got people from India, like myself, we've got people from China, from America, from Africa. Within Christianity, as well, all of us are, at least academically coming into this subject with an interest in Christianity. Some of us come with personal interest in Christianity, some come from without that kind of a religious or confessional interest, if I may put it that way. And so, just this blending of perspectives, and opinions, respecting one another's spaces, and respecting one another's backgrounds, I think that has been quite an experience. And I quite enjoy that. And speaking of faculty, even though I'm in Edinburgh, in the UK, my supervisor is a Chinese American, and the other supervisor is also from state of Nagaland in India. And so, there's a lot of diversity in the World Christianity community. So that's been something that I have really enjoyed and I'm appreciative about.  

06:55 
I think I have learned a lot from books and from my research, but also from friends, from colleagues, from the teachers from professors. And I always am grateful to be here in Edinburgh, because it fits quite perfectly with the, my academic interest, I just talk and there are people who understand me, and it's what I'm trying to say. For me, that is extremely important, because without the ability to have the discussion and conversation with somebody who understands me, growth growing in that topic, or in that, in that pursuit is very much limited if there's no platform or no space for talking freely about it. And so, I think it has been very life-giving for me to be able to have those conversations. And again, this, this concerns, perspectives on Christianity, and on slippery topics like post-colonialism. Yeah, I mean, I could go on and on, but I think that gives you an idea of what I'm trying to say.  

08:16 
Because of the pandemic, the social connections, and relationships had been very restricted, especially last year. And things are opening up and I'm looking forward to be able to connect with more people, catch up for coffee and chat with them, that kind of thing. So I would have loved to have had the chance to have more connections like that in the past two years but I think there's still time. So I'm looking forward to that.  

08:41 
I have lived in different cities. I've lived in Seoul for three years, I've lived in Vancouver for two years, and now I'm running second year in Edinburgh. And it's a joy for me to be able to experience a lovely city like this. After my PhD, I will be looking to get some experience in either teaching or try, if things go well, try to get a postdoctoral studies or something of that sort. But ultimately, my goal is really to continue seeking these questions that I'm pursuing in my particular PhD right now, which is indigenous agency indigenous knowledge and looking at it from the perspective of Christianity. I'm coming at this more or less as a theologian, and I'm looking at all of these dynamics of interface between indigenous life world and Christianity. And so I'm hoping to pursue this for the rest of my life, I don't know, but that's what I think right now. 

[Theme music]  

09:34 
We all have role models, people, we look up to people who encourage us or who leave a mark on our life. We asked our podcast guests who inspires them? 

09:45 
There's one Australian academy theologian by the name of Graham Hill, who I met in Seoul, South Korea many years back, and I've been following his blogs and he does these YouTube interviews of a range of majority world and global South thinkers and activists, theologians, leaders who are particularly working within the context of Christianity. But I've found that kind of a platforming of these multiple voices and their works have been so helpful for me. Even in the process of me searching for where to study, where to do my PhD, I found that his interviews were really helpful to give a voice in a way to some of my questions, too. But besides Graham Hill, I'm always inspired by forerunners of my tribal community, the early educated people who took on this massive responsibility of laying down foundational works in writing or in teaching and it's their work that makes our generation, the studies even possible because they put in the hard work. And these folks, they navigated multiple circles of life. They were writers, they were farmers, sometimes they were political workers. They were church leaders, and they represented the community like internationally or nationally, and so these people inspire me and whenever I feel lazy, I remember them and the hard work that they have laid down and I'm always inspired by that. 

[Theme music]  

11:02 
Our podcast guests were supported by Student Experience Grants, one-off awards that help fund innovative projects that help students make the most of their time at Edinburgh. The grants are funded by Edinburgh alumni and friends. Without their generosity, the scheme would not exist. Have you been inspired by the story? Are you a student or member of staff looking for funding? Search - Student Experience Grants - on the University website to find out how to apply for support. Thank you for listening. And thank you to the donors who make the Student Experience Grants possible. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai