oct 19, 2013: presented a paper with my friend Rachel McGuire at the new creation conference at roberts wesleyan college today. the topic of our presentation was “eschatology and hospitality: an interfaith conversation.” we talked about hospitality as an equalizer of power – a way to restructure society. rachel spoke about prophets such as jesus and malcolm x who shake up oppressive power imbalances and decolonize our minds. i talked about amartya sen’s book “identity and violence: the illusion of destiny” and discussed complex, multi-faceted identities within each individual as opposed to cardboard stereotypes which pit unchanging, incompatible “cultures” against one another. we quoted jacques derrida, the letter to the hebrews, jesus, muhammad asad, and the andalusian sufi and poet ibn arabi. ours was the only interfaith presentation, presented by two people instead of one. it was academic but forcefully connected to our present reality. the response was brilliant. instead of one tentative question we got an array of questions and comments which ended up becoming a discussion. yay!!!
my co-presenter rachel is on my left and my friend eileen who was there to cheer us on, is on my right.
