Andrew Crighton
News Editor
The ISU College of Arts and Letters hosted its second annual Humanities Cafe to promote and celebrate the diversity among the community. Individuals spoke on everything from personal experiences as a refugee to what it’s like to create ceramics.
Mona Kashani Heern was born and lived in Iran during the revolution. Heern and her family are members of the Baha’i faith, a group that was heavily persecuted under the new rule of the clergy.
Heern told the story of living with her father being arrested and later executed on the basis of his religion and her mother’s struggle of finding a way to get them out of the country.
After a period of time in Pakistan, Heern and her family were granted visas into Germany, where she lived for several years.
After a period of time, she decided to move to the United States because there was little diversity in Germany. It was, as she described it, hard for her to feel like a person.
Heern’s presentation had an underlying theme.
“Be generous with your time,” she said.
She explained that Americans in particular are extremely generous with money and supplies, but a lot of the time what people who are new to a country need is a friend, or someone to take the time to help them find their place in a new city or country.
ISU professor of social work Justin Lee spoke on a similar subject, how the community can help with the integration of refugees and some of the issues they face.
“Why are we afraid to offend someone by asking who they are and where they come from?” Lee asked.
During his work, he spoke with many people who have resettled in the United States and one thing that came up time and time again was that in an attempt to not treat them differently, the people around them put them in a bubble.
One woman who wore colorful headdresses and other clothes that are not traditional in the United States wondered why people were ignoring her and pretending she didn’t exist when she was obviously different.
Dustin Thompson is an ISU student who studies fine arts. He presented on the experiences he had as a potter.
Thompson opened on how pottery is a unique form of art compared to others, such as painting and drawing.
“These art forms have something in common, in that they are made to be viewed. In addition to being viewed, pottery posses another trait,” Thompson said. “We interact with it at an intimate and personal level, often holding it closely in our hands or bringing it to our lips.”
One of his projects is creating ceramicware for friends who were in points of transition, as he described it. Thompson provided an entire set of pots and tableware to two friends who were having their first child.
Michael Montoya, a professor at the University of California, Irvine discussed the growing field of cultural competence in the medical field.
With the intention of increasing understanding between medical professionals and patients from different cultures, cultural competence tries to teach some of the differences that could come up.
However, the issue became that this type of training, at times, turned into teaching stereotypes about different cultures.
However, the field is continuing to evolve, and Montoya believes that one of the keys to functioning better is by accepting the common denominator among all of our differences – we are all human and have more similar experiences than we may know.
The evening concluded with a musical performance by Jedd Greenhalgh.
Greenhalgh is an ISU student who composes, performs and produces his own music and attempts to combine classic violin and pop music.
Before his performance Greenhalgh explained why he thought he was asked to attend the event along with the other people who had spoken.
He explained that he believed it was because as a member of the LGBTQ community, he used his music as a way to express himself and find an escape, having grown up in an area where being homosexual was not accepted.
Greenhalgh performed three pieces, closing with “Ascension,” which Greenhalgh described as, “Very much about embracing yourself and letting go of everything else that’s around you, and the fact that if you do that everything will be ok.”
The College of Arts and Letters is already planning the third Humanities Cafe for February, however a date and location has not yet been established.
