Symposium

What is the Gordon College Symposium?

Each year, a symposium enabling Gordon students and faculty to discuss contemporary issues outside the classroom is held across campus. This educational experience is almost exclusively student-initiated, reflecting a reversal of the usual faculty and student roles. After the theme is announced in the fall, students submit proposals for sessions they see as fitting. In these sessions, it is not unusual for a student to be in front of the class, with faculty sitting in the audience.

Students or student groups are welcome to submit an application for any format of event that they feel fits within the theme. In the past, events have included not only presentations, panel discussions and debates, but also poetry readings, dramatic performances, dance performances, art exhibits, and service projects.

Symposium 2008, "Shalom: The Right Order of Things," will take place over the course of three Convocations during the spring semester (February 8, March 28, and April 11) rather than the traditional all day event. Given this change in format, a limited number of event spaces are available and there is an increased possibility that some events may not be accepted. Also, events must be able to fit into the traditional 50-minute time slot allotted to Convocation.

Past and present themes include:

• 1998-Money and Possessions: Greed or Generosity
• 1999-Art at the Millennium: Makers and Consumers of Culture
• 2000-Who Is My Neighbor? Rights and Responsibilities at the Millennium
• 2001-Body Talk: Embodiment as Blessing, Constraint and Offense
• 2002-Seeds of Redemption: Evidences of Things Hoped For
• 2003-Work and Play
• 2004-Vocation: Called to Make a Life-Called to Make a Difference
• 2005-The Coming of Global Christianity: Turning the World Upside Down
• 2006-Peace, Justice and Reconciliation: Can You Have One Without the Other
• 2007-Authenticity: To Know Truly and be Truly Known
• 2008-Shalom: The Right Order of Things