The common theme of “home” asks the community to reflect on the different meanings and feelings this word evokes, including home as family, home as physical location, and home as Widener.
What role does home play in our personal journeys? How might home and its many interpretations factor into our professional lives? How does home shape family, our communities, and social groups? And in what ways are we inhabitants of a common home, involving the earth, sustainability, and global responsibility?
Home can create a positive feeling, and can be used to invite and include. But home can also be used to divide and exclude. And for many people, home is a dream, as we recognize that many people, including students, grapple with homelessness.
Key Readings
- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
- Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
- Brent Staples, Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
(Brent Staples is a 1973 Widener graduate who was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing)
- Homer, The Odyssey
- Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun