ASIA 100: Xenia and Our Obligations to Others

Number of Sections: 1 | Days and Times: Monday & Wednesday (7:30-9:00 PM ICT)

Course Description

While multiple themes and topics will be addressed in this course, the narrow definition and broader understanding of xenia (hospitality) will especially occupy our attention. 

Travel, commerce, religious devotion, friendships, political alliances, even survival in classical western civilization depended on a universal code of conduct referred to as xenia by the ancient Greeks. Very little could be done outside of one’s own kinship group or small community without a guarantee that one would be treated well as a stranger. This tacit pact of guest-friendship remains extremely relevant in contemporary, globalized society, especially for Myanmar students as they journey away from home, through the gateway of the campus’ halls and into the wider world. 

In addition to enhancing core skills of analysis, debate, writing, critical reading and listening, students will work on seven discrete units, treating exemplary artistic works from the Greco-Roman tradition that illustrate and complicate this theme of hospitality, its functions and its limits, both historically and conceptually.