Stories

Alight Learning Collection

Geography
Global
Date
January 23, 2026
A living archive of books, films, podcasts, and articles that ground our work in the realities of the people we serve.
Global
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The work of responding to displacement is shaped by the stories we carry with us.

We invited staff across countries, teams, and lived experiences to share the resources that have most influenced their understanding of displacement, migration, the refugee experience and humanitarian work. What came back was not a reading list in the traditional sense, but a collective reflection on power, dignity, identity, and hope.

The result is the Alight Learning Collection – a living archive of books, films, podcasts, and articles that ground our work in the realities of the people we serve. You can download the PDF of Alight’s Learning Collection here.

Human centered perspective on displacement

Across the collection, one message appears again and again: to understand displacement, we must begin with people, not systems.

Title: Abdi the American
Context: Somalia, Kenya and United States ‍

A podcast episode about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American. Abdi is a Somali refugee living in Kenya and gets the luckiest break of his life: he wins a lottery that puts him on a short list for a U.S. visa. This is his ticket out. But before he can cash in his golden ticket, the police start raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees.

Title: The Swimmers
Context: Syria and Brazil

The film follows two young sisters who embark on a risky voyage from war-torn Syria to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as one of them competes in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Download the PDF of Alight’s Learning Collection

Alight’s Learning Collection
Page: /

‍Leadership as service

Leadership in this collection is not framed as control or expertise, but as service, humility, and responsibility.

Title: Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf
Recommended by: The QuestScope Team

In Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf proposed that service ought to be the distinguishing characteristic of leadership. Not only would it create a better, stronger society, but people themselves “would find greater joy in their lives if they raised the servant aspect of their leadership and built more serving institutions.” This was a foundational text for Dr.Curt Rhodes as QuestSCope was founded and continues to be highly influential to the organization’s leadership and structure today.  

Title: Rural Development by Robert Chambers
Recommended by: The QuestScope Team

This idea is echoed in Rural Development: Putting the Last First by Robert Chambers, which emphasizes listening to communities on the margins and supporting their own priorities: “Outside organizations must ask open-ended questions, truly listen to what is going on from the community’s perspectives…”

Challenging assumptions

Many resources in Alight’s Learning Collection focus on race, gender, identity, and the ways power operates quietly and persistently.

Title: White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
Recommended by: Andezu Orionzi

“Ruby Hamad’s work is a collection of powerful examples describing how white women often weaponize their nonintersectional feminism to preserve status, power, and protection. BIPOC women, myself included, are continuously expected to accommodate, comfort and absorb the impact of white supremacy in silence as it serves our white women counterparts. A prescribed read to anyone who self identifies as a white feminist, BIPOC ally and/or conscientious leader.”

Title: seeing white by Scene on Radio  
Recommended by: Jane Stockman

The podcast series, Seeing White (Scene on Radio), examines: “The construction of White and Black, power, structural racism, and the history of structural racism in the U.S.” Together, these works challenge readers to move beyond intention and examine impact.

A Living, Growing Collection

The Alight Learning Collection reflects who we are striving to be: an organization committed to listening, questioning, and learning alongside the communities we serve.

This is a resource for anyone connected to Alight – and an open invitation to anyone who believes that leadership begins with humility and learning never ends. The collection will continue to grow as new voices, stories, and perspectives are added.

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