Humanities Commons Sponsored Event Gives Twist On Hospitality

Liz Kyle
News Editor

On Friday, UD faculty and students met in Sears Recital Hall for a panel titled, “Non-Western Concepts of Hospitality.” Sponsored by Humanities Commons, the panel invited audience members to think about hospitality from a global perspective.

Aili Bresnahan, Humanities Commons coordinator, served as moderator. She began the event by acknowledging the different forms and concepts associated with hospitality that are not usually talked about.

“Hospitality is so much more than putting mints on someone’s pillow,” Bresnahan said.

“It’s about respect and being culturally conscious.”
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The 50 minute panel was broken into three topics, with each panelist focusing their presentations on their respective areas of expertise. Una Cadegan, representing the department of history, focused her presentation about trying to answer the question, “can hospitality be a global attitude, or is it meaningful only in relation to those nearest us?”

Steve Bein, from the department of philosophy, discussed his hospitality experiences in Japan and how foreigners understand a country’s respective hospitality norms.

Julius Amin, alumni chair in the humanities, talked about what hospitality means to Bantu-speaking people and the experiences of UD students who visited Cameroon.
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In the wake of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Bein called for action at the beginning of his talk.

“Can we be the place of unending hospitality? That’s my sincerest wish for the university moving forward,” he said.

Other themes discussed in the panel included being open to new visitors, establishing a connection between visitors by welcoming them into communities and being socially aware of different cultures’ traditions and norms.

“We need hospitality because we’re all strangers, but we’re also equally pilgrims,” Cadegan said.

“We all can become somewhat familiar with each other.”

For more information about future Humanities Commons programming, click here.

Photos Courtesy of Liz Kyle/News Editor