The theme for this term’s Symposium Day on Wednesday is identity and will have four featured speakers, including an alumnus.
WAUG, the student-run radio station on campus, will also live broadcast the event and hold a concert at 5 p.m. on the lower quad.
Jeffrey Ratliff-Crain, associate dean of curriculum and engagement, organized this term’s Symposium Day.
“We have local and international experts on campus that day sharing ideas,” Ratliff-Crain. “We get to see our fellow students and professors approaching these issues in something other than a classroom setting.”
Featured speakers this term include 2010 alumnus Matthew Pelton who has served as the program director of the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship, and author Donna Freitas, a religion research associate at Notre Dame. Pelton and Freitas will be available on campus next week.
Anton Treuer, executive director of the American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University, and Sturla Ellinvåg, a Norwegian researcher for the Explico Historical Research Foundation, are also featured speakers for the day.
The day will begin with advising group meetings at 9 a.m., followed by the four keynote speakers and breakout sessions. An all-campus reception at 3 p.m. will end the day.
Panel discussions, led by students and faculty, include a range of themes from sexual identity to theatrical identity, to poetry reading.
Sophomore Grace Carlson believes the day can allow people to create unique interactions.
“Symposium Day is an opportunity to hear speakers present on topics different from the ones you may be learning in class and take part in learning with different members of the Augie community,” said Carlson.
“This is a chance to learn interesting things, see important works, hear about novel approaches, get involved, without there being a test or grade hanging over our heads,” said Ratliff-Crain. “These kinds of opportunities are rare, even at colleges.”