Beyond formal spaces: Reflections from the NSU Winter Symposium ‘Feminism and Hospitality’

Abstract

This text offers some reflections that stem from my participation in the NSU Winter Symposium ‘Feminism and Hospitality: Religious and critical perspectives in dialogue with a secular age’, held in Turku, Finland, 5–7 March 2020. Drawing from my previous experiences both in my native country and in my country of residence, I first explain why this event represented a welcome novelty to me. I then highlight some of its major positive features. I do not offer a resume of the presentations or a collection of some of them. Rather, I focus on what, according to me, is the main strength of this kind of event. Based on the revision of my own presentation, I conclude by saying it may serve as a laboratory from whence to start the construction of bridges through which the dialogue between religion and secularism can really occur.