Rowdy Duncan radiates energy and passion for his specialty: Stereotypes.
New to ұ as a Communication Faculty, Rowdy has already made a name for himself outside of academia. As a speaker/trainer/consultant with his own company, he hosts and produces a bi-weekly podcast called - which explores the intersections of being an activist for those of marginalized background and how it makes you a better happier person
“At ұ, my favorite classes to teach are COM110 Interpersonal Communication (I call it the keys to happiness) COM225; Public Speaking (I am a paid traveling public speaker); and COM263 Intercultural Communication (i.e. what is wrong with the world and how to better fix it and make new friends and allies),” says Duncan. “I enjoy living a life of service when I can - and try to incorporate service-learning into my courses as doing so has had some excellent outcomes in terms of empowerment and helping students see the ability to make a positive difference in our world.”
It's that kind of passion that brought Rowdy to Nigeria recently a conference panelist. “Back in 2014 I attended the International Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Level 1 Training and I met Dr. Adepeju Oti who runs the non-profit the Global Youth Leadership and Girl-Child Foundation. When I saw the topic for this year at the RAGA (Raising Girls Ambition) Conference, Debunking Stereotypes - there was a natural fit.”
Rowdy cares about this topic. And it’s obvious. “The violence in Nigeria toward young women is tragic are there are sadly high rates of domestic violence within the household,” he explains. “Women are raped by men at an alarming rate. But if you can get one girl into and through higher education with the capacity to support herself, those rates plummet - not only for her, but for all girls along her family line.”
The fifth annual international conference on Raising Girls Ambition (RAGA), organized by the Global Youth Leadership and Girl-Child Foundation (GYLGF), was held in early October 2018. It highlighted the need to educate and empower female children with digital-age skills so that they can not only survive but thrive in an ever-progressing information and technologically advanced age. The focus was to get girls into STEM fields.
“We also visited the IITA the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture which has a focus on sustainable crop practices for the western African region. They focus on topic like soil health (which we need better practices for here as well) as well as long term sustain able agricultural practices with a focus on affordability,” said Duncan. “RAGA attempts to engage young women in understanding they too have much to contribute in these areas as well and foster an interest and love for this work for mutual beneficial outcomes. It is of critical importance we reframe women from traditional roles (housewife, part time worker, only of use for arranged marriage) so women might be embraced as full humans and the problems of the world will need every available human helping do their part.”
Rowdy highlighted the need for education, stating that for women, only performing traditional roles in the 21st century is outdated, and women should be given the opportunity to broaden their horizon educationally. One example of how a traditional role of women could be reframed is the normalization of hyphenated names. If a young girl becomes a scientist BOTH families can take pride in her achievement. “Nigeria is a more collectivist society, so family honor means a lot. With traditional marriage and with last name changes, a girl’s family has no “connection” to her through her adult life,” noted Duncan. “Also, more patriarchal men need and crave respect. Boys tend to pass down the last name, filling this need for respect. If new norms of respect could be seen or valued with women, we might see a normalization of family respect given with the achievement with young women.”
At the conference, Duncan spoke about ‘Moral Reframing,’ which is using the language of someone’s moral values to frame arguments. For example, here in the U.S. we might make an environmental conservation plea to people with conservative values - using language like “purity,” “keeping our natural beauty great,” “clean,” “it’s our patriotic duty to care of our homeland and keep it pure,” etc. When we use the language of others, moral values of others they tend to move or be persuaded much more greatly than if we try to argue from our on moral value base. Rowdy recommends a about the idea.
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