PEGAH RAHMANIAN was recently named director of Rhode Island College’s Unity Center. She previously served as executive director of Providence-based nonprofit Youth In Action. In her new role, she will manage and promote the center’s programs, such as the LGBTQ+, Interfaith and International Students offices and Women’s Center.
The challenges for multicultural individuals have increased under the current political climate both globally and nationally. How will the Unity Center address those challenges under your guidance? Since the European arrival, we’ve always been a nation that balanced the acceptance of difference with the fear of difference. The danger right now is that we’re combining fear of others with an attempt to legislate them out of existence, either through minimizing access; reducing civil rights, including voting rights; or building walls. The role of the Unity Center is to do the exact opposite. To create a space [where] students feel safe, challenge our ideas of difference in an academic setting and serve the larger college’s mission toward social mobility, especially during economically challenging times.
What new initiatives do you hope to introduce as director of the Unity Center? I have a lot of big dreams for what the Unity Center can be. I want us to move beyond being only a safe space and to be on the forefront of conversations around the college that address diversity, equity and inclusion. We are in a unique position to support faculty, staff and students as we push our community to become more inclusive. There are exciting possibilities here for programming and events in research and scholarship, and in the kind of trainings we can offer across campus.
You have worked in various cities across the country before coming to Rhode Island. What have you learned about the cultures in those cities and how have you applied them to your work here in Rhode Island? In small-town Ohio, where I’m from, I learned the Midwestern ethic of being friendly first. In Chicago, I learned that a rich set of public institutions such as free museums, public libraries and a public transit system meant greater access for all. In New Orleans, the most vibrant city I’ve lived [in], I learned that the richness of U.S. culture owes so much to its black community. Oakland, [Calif.], pushed me to think that good organizing is always thinking outside the box. Providence has taught me the importance of relationship, and it’s this lesson, connecting all my experiences together, that has shaped my leadership.
Does the current political atmosphere motivate you even more to help build and improve the community for all, especially being a daughter of immigrant parents? Yes, of course it does. It’s the immediacy that is so poignantly tethered to the current political atmosphere, but the work itself is ongoing and needs our attention all the time … not only when communities are under attack. My experience of being the daughter of immigrants doesn’t live in a political vacuum; it is complex and ever-present. I believe that our stories are inextricably linked and that if we focus on that as our guide in this work, we can achieve justice and freedom.
