COD Human Library Project Sheds Light on Differences

Volunteers from the College of DuPage community acted as “human books” representing a variety of cultural backgrounds and life experiences during COD’s Human Library. The “human books” engaged in conversation with participants in a one-on-one setting for 20 minutes at a time. View photos from the event.

Bringing the international project to the COD community created a safe space for dialogues on challenging topics, said Humanities Professor Julia diLiberti.

“Conversations and storytelling help build empathy and when we try to understand the world through another person’s experiences, we see there are often more similarities than differences,” she said.

The Human Library took place during COD’s Humanities Festival, “World View.” The three-week festival featured College faculty, instructors and staff drawing from anthropology, architecture, art, earth science, film, history, music, poetry, sociology and more, all focusing on the myriad lenses through which one can see the world.

(Press Photography Network/ Special to College of DuPage)