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Guestbook Project

The Guestbook Project is an ongoing artistic, academic, and multi-media experiment in hospitality. Directed by philosopher Richard Kearney and sponsored by Boston College, the project's core themes are the relationship between host and stranger; violence and reconciliation; the citizen and the alien.

PROJECT OVERVIEW
HOSTING THE STRANGER

FACING THE STRANGER IN DIVIDED COMMUNITIES (2010-2011)

Jerusalem: Across the Divide (2011)

Mitrovica: Young people of Serbia and Bosnia Speak out (2010)

Derry/Londonberry: Beyond the Walls (2011)

U.S.-Mexico Border: Under a Strange Sun (2012)

Dokdo or Takeshima: Between Islands

WELCOMING THE STRANGER ACROSS RELIGIONS (2010-2011)

Skelligs: Crossing Thresholds at the Edge of the World (2010)

Bangalore: Reconciling Strangers - A Peace Council (2010)

Glenstal: Rites of Hospitality (2009)

Recent Guestbook Publications and Films

Books:

Hosting the Stranger: Between Religions, edited by Richard Kearney and James Taylor, Continuum, New York (2011)

Phenomenologies of the Stranger, Between Hostility and Hospitality, edited by Richard Kearney and Kascha Semonovitch, Fordham University Press, New York (2011)

Special edition of the journal Religion and the Arts, Hospitality: Imagining the Stranger, edited by Chris Yates, (2010)

On Hosting the Stranger, edited by Thomas Epstein, New Arcadia Review (2010) 

Traversing the Heart: Journeys in Interreligious Imagination, edited by Richard Kearney and Eileen Rizo-Patron, Brill, Leiden (2011)

Films (2012):

U.S.-Mexico Border: Under Strange Sun 

Dokdo or Takeshima: Between Islands 

Films (2011):

Mitrovica: Facing the Stranger Across the Divide - Young People of Serbia and Bosnia Speak Up (Petra and James Taylor) 

Beyond the Walls: Derry/Londonderry (Martin Melarkey) 

Jerusalem: Across the Divide (Sarit Larry)

events

October 11, 2011

Boston College-Georgetown-Derry. Interactive conversation between students at Boston College, Georgetown and Derry on the subject of 'Narrative Exchange and Empathy'. This international website discussion will be preceded by the screening of the three recent Guestbook documentaries on 'Facing the Stranger in Divided Cities: Derry, Jerusalem, Mitrovica.'

April 29, 2011

PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature

World premier of The Guestbook Project: Facing the Stranger Across the Divide. The screening of Guestbook films from Mitrovica, Derry, and Jerusalem, was accompanied by a panel discussion on “Imagining the Stranger,” which  addressed notions of hospitality and hostility, violence and reconciliation, and the roles of the citizen and the stranger.  Instituto Cervantes New York City.

May 13, 2011

Launch of Guestbook Publications and Documentaries (2009-2011). Boston College, Heights Room.

May 22, 2011

European Premiere of the Guestbook 'Divided Cities' Films at the 'Divided Cities in Transition' conference.  Derry/Londonderry

June 8, 2011

Screening of Guestbook Interreligious films at the 'Pilgrimage and Faith' lecture by Richard Kearney. Rublin Museum, New York

View all events  >>