February 27th at 3:30 pm- Plaza Building, Room M202
The University of Colorado-Denver's Philosophy Department has invited Dr. Becky Vartabedian, an Associate Professor of Philosophy from Regis University, to present to our community. The talk title is "Hesitation and the Time of Hospitality".
Abstract:
This paper considers the role hesitation plays in hospitality, namely its operation in relation to an encounter with a stranger. Whether the stranger is treated as a threat or revered as a god in disguise, this determination prescribes a temporal interval in which a would-be host discerns both the intentions of the stranger and whether to welcome or reject the visitor. An examination of this interval reveals a moment of hesitation between the perception of a stranger and the choice of how they will be treated.
I consider this moment using Alia Al-Saji’s theories of hesitation (2014) and critical hesitation (2018), as well as Elizabeth Freeman’s concept of “temporal drag” (2010). These accounts develop hesitation and drag from marginalized positions, and in doing so reveal important (and problematic) features of dominant temporal assumptions. I argue that these dominant temporal assumptions - forged from resources of colonialism and heteronormativity - are abrogations of the appropriate times of hospitality, having effectively ‘jumped’ or ‘elided’ the interval of hesitation the encounter with a stranger requires. I conclude by explaining the way settler colonialism’s temporal elisions confirm certain valences of Jacques Derrida’s provocative claim that “We do not know what hospitality is.”
Refreshments and conversation will follow the event.