In this episode, Jessica speaks to Dalton Bradford. Dalton Haakon Bradford is a senior at Brigham Young University studying Middle East Studies & Arabic. He plans to graduate in the fall and begin applying to Masters' programs on the east of the United States and across Europe specialising in Conflict Resolution, Peacemaking and Peacebuilding.
Growing up with three siblings—Parker, Claire & Luc—Dalton's parents, Melissa and Randall, had a vision for their children to gain a broader global understanding and thus followed where their work took them internationally. Dalton was born in Norway but has also lived in France, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, but lived for the longest period in Versailles and Paris, France. Through immersion and instructive experience, Dalton learned to embrace a variety of cultures, religions and languages (of which he speaks English and French fluently and has intermediate or novice comprehension of German and Mandarin Chinese). It is in his upbringing, his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his current major that he has developed an increased awareness of the racial, gender-based and religious discriminations present in every society.
With all of these experiences living abroad, not one of being in the Middle East or Arabic-speaking world, Dalton nevertheless began his path in learning about the richness of the region and learning the Arabic language in his first semester in Fall 2016 and hasn't looked back since. Countless doors have already opened and he has gained the most rewarding friendships and connections through then limited knowledge he has already acquired. He has had the privilege of applying such knowledge to working with organisations as Their Story is Our Story, collecting (and sometimes translating) the stories of refugees that have made their journeys from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Palestine. He also completed an internship and study abroad program back-to-back in 2018 which took across the Arab world, including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Israel and Palestine. Since then, he has had the privilege of working at BYU with the Middle East Studies/Arabic Committee, the Asian and Near-Eastern Languages Department and jointly with BYU Law School and the Center for Conflict Resolution.
In addition to continuing in his higher education, Dalton aims to gain proficiency in other Arabic dialects and to learn Persian, Modern Hebrew and Spanish along the way. Whatever his career path, he wishes nothing more than to be on the ground in the Middle East as frequently as possible and providing space and platforms for marginalised groups to have a voice.