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This website was developed in the fall of 2021 at Davidson College for my Arab Studies and Digital & Screen Media Studies capstones and for the final project in DIG 245: Critical Web Design. This project builds off of a previous project that I and two other students developed in 2020 called The Epilogues Project.
The process for completing "Epilogues" was threefold, involving interviews, research and analysis, and web design.
The interviews were the first step. In the summer of 2021, I and a friend who is a native Arabic speaker visited Hana and Nadia in their homes and interviewed them in Arabic for an hour each. I recorded the interviews on my phone, and with the help of some native Arabic speakers at Davidson I was able to translate and transcribe them. I had already interviewed Luna and Mrs. J as part of “The Epilogues Project,” and I followed up with Luna with a few additional questions later in the semester. Due to privacy concerns, I did not include any photographs, video, or audio in this project, and I provided pseudonyms unless otherwise requested.
The second stage of the project was research and writing. During the first half of the semester, I read Kaemingk, Brown, Derrida, Illich, and other key thinkers related to hospitality. Around mid-October, I began synthesizing and analyzing my research with the intention of writing two papers, one about hospitality and refugee experiences and the other about digital hospitality. I found the research fascinating, but the writing itself took more time than I had anticipated.
The third part of the project pertained to web design. Throughout the semester, I was learning about web design in DIG 245, including HTML, CSS, and Javascript. In November, I began designing logos and prototypes in Figma, and by the end of the month started the actual coding through Github and Atom. The first part of the site that I developed was the “Volunteer” page for my DIG 245 final project. I found an API through USA Hello that listed 50 refugee assistance agencies within a certain radius of the user’s location. I requested access to all of the data rather than only 50 agencies at a time, but the organization never responded. So, using Leaflet and Javascript, I created a map that displays those 50 agencies in relation to the user’s browser location. Although the map takes longer to load than I would have liked, I am pleased with the final result.
The site's logo is a table inside a house. I chose this design because of the significance of food, drink, and accomodation in extending hospitality. The title, "Epilogues," comes from the interviews which primarily focus on post-resettlement experiences. Finally, I chose a minimal design in an attempt to make the site as simple, straightforward, and user-friendly as possible.
My primary goals in this project were to learn about refugee experiences in the U.S., especially as they pertain to hospitality, and to share what I have learned in a hospitable digital format.
With regard to the interviews, my initial goal was to learn about each family’s lives. I am fascinated by others’ stories, and I wanted to know what each interviewee thought about hospitality and how Americans can better love and serve them in this way. Then, because I found the stories so powerful, I wanted to share them in a way that would engage others. The transcriptions are long, but I believe that the stories are fully worth the time it takes to read them.
My goal as I researched and wrote about hospitality was to understand what it is and how it is most effectively put into practice. I deeply resonate with Ivan Illich’s quote that is on the opening page of this site: “[I]f I had to choose one word to which hope can be tied it is hospitality.” The act of opening one’s home, sharing one’s food, and giving of one’s time and resources says, “You are welcome here” like nothing else. It can ease transitions, foster community, and change lives. I want my readers to understand this and be motivated to practice hospitality wherever they are.
My goal in the site development and design was to create a simple, accessible website that embodies the hospitable design practices I outline in my Digital Hospitality paper.
Because I only began learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript this semester and only had a few weeks to build the site, I think my goal of designing a fully accessible, hospitable website from scratch was a bit too lofty. My CSS organization in particular feels messy, and the design is not as appealing on smaller screens. Nonetheless, I am proud of what I was able to accomplish with the limited time I had, and with more time and practice, I think I could have improved my organization and responsive design to better align with my goals.
I had hoped to interview as many as ten refugee families for this project, but I quickly realized that I did not have sufficient time in the semester to arrange, conduct, and translate/transcribe them all. Manually coding them into the site was also more time-intensive than I anticipated. I especially wanted to interview an Afghan family that I met through my Farsi class, but I did not have the time or language skills to do so. Perhaps next semester as I continue to study Farsi (akin to Dari, the language spoken by Afghans), I will be able to conduct an interview with this family in order to learn more about their experiences.
Despite the time and language constraints I encountered, I am pleased with the final results of this endeavor. The project challenged, inspired, and humbled me as I heard these incredible stories of resilience and considered how to implement what I learned about hospitality in my own life.
I cannot express enough how grateful I am to Nadia, Hana, Luna, and Mrs. J for sharing their time and their stories with me. Thank you to Nadia and Hana for inviting me into your home and modeling hospitality for me during the interviews. Thank you to Luna and Mrs. J for your support across multiple iterations of this project. I have learned so much from all of you, and I am very grateful.