A Traveling Philosophy
Bradley Hilgert ’07 (Photo by Katie Nunner ’16)
“Travel, travel as much as you can,” says Bradley Hilgert, a 2007 Ohio Wesleyan University graduate.
Hilgert, a philosophy and Spanish double major, shared that advice when he returned to campus April 14 at the invitation of philosophy professor Shari Stone-Mediatore, Ph.D.
During his visit, Hilgert presented “Coloniality in Central America” to students enrolled in Stone-Mediatore’s Travel-Learning Course “Modernity & Colonialism: Global Perspectives on History, Justice and Truth.”
Stone-Mediatore’s students recently returned from a spring break trip to Mexico, where they looked at Zapatista life and observed what democracy and human dignity means to people.
Hilgert, now pursuing his doctorate in Latin American Culture and Literature at The Ohio State University, says he is excited to see the “philosophy component” incorporated into an OWU class concentrated in Latin American studies.
While at Ohio Wesleyan, Hilgert experienced a life-changing trip to Ecuador for five weeks during the summer before his senior year. He also participated in a spring break mission trip to the U.S.-Mexico border and spent a semester studying in Spain thorough the University’s Salamanca program.
Since graduation, he has spent a year teaching at Ecuador’s Colegio Americano and, ultimately, plans to return to Ecuador to teach.
“The inequalities I saw in Ecuador … it was an experience I couldn’t not do something with,” says Hilgert, whose research interests range from El Salvador’s civil war to contemporary Spanish and Portuguese literature.
While in Ecuador, Hilgert hopes to create opportunities for Ohio Wesleyan students to travel abroad.
“It’s extremely formative to spend time outside of your comfort zone,” he says, “especially for an entire semester.”