Gothenburg University Researcher Wojtek Jezierski to Deliver a Guest Lecture on Medieval Cultures of Hospitality within the “Culture Crossroads” Series
On 7 November at 16:00, the Latvian Academy of Culture “Gara māja” (Miera iela 58a) will host a guest lecture by Dr. Wojtek Jezierski of the University of Gothenburg. The lecture will conclude the thematic section “Cultural Heritage” within the conference series “Culture Crossroads” and will explore the history of medieval hospitality and its relevance to understanding intercultural relations.
Hospitality – the desire to welcome guests, visitors, or strangers with generosity and goodwill – may appear today as a self-evident and almost universal cultural principle. However, historical sources reveal a far more intricate picture. The lecture will examine how the relationship between host and guest was understood and practiced in the Middle Ages, beginning with Livonia and the Baltic Sea region and expanding the perspective to Europe and beyond. Special attention will be given to the social function of hospitality – how it served as a unifying force in times of tension or uncertainty, yet could also become a source of division and conflict.
The lecture will invite the audience to consider hospitality as an interpretative lens through which to understand intercultural encounters, confrontations, and forms of interaction, both in the medieval period and today. Medieval experiences show that the boundary between hospitality and hostility was not always clearly defined, and the question of who is considered a welcome guest – and when an act of warm reception may turn into suspicion or even the opposite – remains highly relevant in contemporary society.
Dr. Wojtek Jezierski is a historian at the University of Gothenburg whose research focuses on the cultural history of medieval society, communication and power structures, as well as intercultural contacts and social relations.
Prepared by Gustavs Strenga, Institute of Culture and Arts, Latvian Academy of Culture