# Sharing a Table: Commensality in Middle Eastern And North African Cookbooks

On July 19 and 20, 2022, the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) hosted a symposium, "Religious Practices, Transmission, and Literacies in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia." The symposium featured the presentations of seven scholars who conducted two-week research residencies in the AMED Reading Room between June 1 and July 15, 2022. The residencies and symposium are part of the Exploring Challenging Conversations project generously funded by a planning grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The purpose of the initiative was to enhance public awareness of cross-regional and intercultural religious understanding in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and their global diaspora. ; ; Heather J. Sharkey is Professor and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Middle Eastern and North African history, and where she received the Charles Ludwig Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. ; ; The Library of Congress holds cookbooks from all over the world, written in dozens of languages. Many focus on cuisines and foodways of the Middle East and North Africa and come from authors who were born or lived there, or whose parents or grandparents originated in the region. This presentation discusses how Middle Eastern and North African cookbooks, and particular dishes within them, can contribute to religious literacy: an awareness of, and respect for, distinctions and…

- Kind: Film
- Year: 2022
- By: Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2024698114/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2024698114?play=1)