Pedagogy Oct 2025

Readerly Co-Dwelling

Shelley Garcia ; Bethany Williamson

Abstract

Abstract This article considers how Jacques Derrida's theory of hospitality, applied within university literature classrooms, can help instructors meaningfully respond to competing student desires for flexibility and belonging. Derrida contends that ideals of “absolute” hospitality must be embodied in concrete and inevitably “conditional” ways. Arguing that the tension between absolute and conditional is one to embrace, the article considers how story-centered classrooms (specifically, general-education literature classes) allow teachers and students alike to move in and out of the roles of welcoming host and gracious guest. The article breaks down this pedagogical process into three overlapping stages, where class participants move from a traditional relationship where a teacher-host welcomes the student-guest, to experiences of readerly co-dwelling in which they collectively allow a story to host its disparate readers. The article argues that this pedagogical rethinking of traditional hospitality hierarchies gives students empowering strategies for welcoming diverse perspectives and inhabiting varied roles with confidence. These hospitality skills, in turn, allow them to practice and experience belonging.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2025-10-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-11874299
Open Access
Closed
Topics
race and writing multilingual writers affect and writing

Citation Context

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Also cites 13 works outside this index ↓
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    College Students’ Sense of Belonging: National Perspective.”
    Educational Researcher  ↗
  3. Gregoriou Zelia . 2003. “Resisting the Pedagogical Domestication of Cosm…
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  4. Heringer (2022)
    Teaching Online in an Ethic of Hospitality: Lessons from a Pandemic.”
    Studies in Philosophy and Education  ↗
  5. Hung (2013)
    Educational Hospitality and Trust in Teacher-Student Relationships: A Derridarian Visiting.”
    Studies in Philosophy and Education  ↗
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    Welcoming Difference at the Limit of Tolerance Education
    Philosophy of Education  ↗
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    College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life
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    Journal of Philosophy of Education  ↗
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  12. Strayhorn (2018)
    College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A Key to Educational Success for All Students
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  13. Yacek (2021)
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     ↗
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