This is the final installment of "Power and Pleasure at the Dinner Table." Find part 1, An Invitation, part 2, The Party Table, and part 3, The Community Table, in previous posts. I intuitively feel the pull of how eating together can be pleasurable, a site of connection. Yet I suspect many of us likely have examples of exclusion when it comes to sharing food with others. Sometimes feelings of exclusion indicate opportunities for new experiences, such as being an omnivore at a vegan potluck. … [Read more...]
The Community Table
This is the third installment of "Power and Pleasure at the Dinner Table." Find part 1, An Invitation, and part 2, The Party Table, in previous posts. Community happens around tables: we play puzzles, games, and music, share meals, plan camping trips or political actions. Tables are sites where people celebrate or grieve together. The political thinker Hannah Arendt describes human togetherness by using a table as a metaphor. You may recognize Arendt’s name. She is perhaps best known for … [Read more...]
Leaving #AtHomeWithArendt
In 2019, we launched a blog series called #AtHomeWithArendt. This series was intended to share research coming out of From Rootlessness to Belonging: An Arendtian Critique of the Family as a Structure of Refugee Assimilation, a research grant awarded from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Government of Canada). Katy, and her collaborator Dr. Rita A. Gardiner, were thinking about issues of refugee resettlement through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s philosophy. Janet came onto the … [Read more...]
World-building through stories
Once upon a time in book club . . . I was surprised when a person in my book club expressed an anti-feminist sentiment. I had forgotten that this person had problems with (or, perhaps more charitably, misconceptions about) feminist politics. Imagine that the person in my book club habitually, rather than infrequently, expresses views that I interpret as anti-feminist. If it were not for book club, I likely would not choose to spend time with them. That’s not how I want to spend my down … [Read more...]
Running with Arendt
My name is Janet. I’m an Applied Philosophy PhD student at the University of Waterloo. I’m an advocate for people with addiction. And I’m a runner. Running doesn’t quite fit in with the other descriptors. When I meet new people, I get asked about what I do, where I’m from, or what I hope to do after I graduate. Running, by comparison, is something I only talk about with people who know me more personally. Friends and family are the only ones that know, for example, that I got ‘serious’ about … [Read more...]
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