Symposium

In the summer, a weekly series of lectures and presentations by resident and visiting scholars is part of the academic curriculum for all M.A.L.S students. The Symposium together with the student-led seminars acquaints students with a broad range of topical issues and encourages articulate discussion and debate. Each student is required to complete two symposia (MALS 120), or One Symposium and one Research Methods module (MALS 130), or One Symposium and one approved Symposium Substitute

The Symposium is open to the greater Dartmouth community and is a highlight of the summer term.

Symposium Guidelines

Each registered student is assigned to a discussion group. Each week after the first meeting, a student group will facilitate the symposium discussion on Wednesday afternoon. See the Syllabus for your group's week, and the readings to be discussed.

Each participant is expected to read the assigned selections carefully BEFORE the Wednesday they are to be discussed, and to note the major discussion questions that these readings evoked for you. You will write your questions on the Blackboard discussion page.

The group facilitating each week's discussion will review all questions posted by participants in their respective groups, and select the key points to discuss.

Professors Pease and Edsforth will serve as resources for the weekly meetings, and may pose questions of their own to stimulate discussion. To receive credit for the symposium, you must have weekly discussion questions posted, engage actively in the discussions, and participate in your group's facilitation.

Please do NOT blitz (e-mail) your questions on the readings to the MALS office, or to Professor Pease or Professor Edsforth! They must be posted on Blackboard or other participants will not be able to read them!

Recent Symposium topics include:

2012: Occupy Wall Street
2011: The Arab Spring
2010: The Coloniality of Knowledge
2009: The Literature and Politics of the Depression
2008: 1968
2007: Prisonhouses of Democracy
2006: Challenging American Exceptionalism
2005: The Return of the Sacred: Fundamentalism and Politics
2004: Ideologies of Terrorism
2003: Race Matters
2002: From Literary to Cultural Studies
2000: The Americas in the 21st Century
1999: Globalization in the New Millennium