FSU English Department's Graduate Student Colloquium

The FSU English Department's Graduate Student Colloquium, which covers literature, theory and film, was introduced by the Advisory Council of English Students (ACES) in Fall 2003. Andre Stefan, an ACES alum, recalls that ACES wanted "to provide graduate students with a space to prepare themselves for conferences and the job market as well as start conversations."

Another ACES member, Molly Hand, notes that the colloquium provides invaluable opportunities for all involved. Presenters "go through the entire conference process, but in a somewhat less intimidating academic environment." This process includes preparing the abstract and presentation, delivering the paper and responding to questions from the respondent and audience. She says also that "audience members get to hear the exciting work their peers are doing; observe the kinds of things they should expect to encounter at a conference; ask questions of presenters; and feel they are part of a strong intellectual community." And for the ACES members, "it provides experience that will help with organizing conference panels, or entire conferences, in the future."

The 7th semi-annual Graduate Student Colloquium took place March 15, 2007, with the topic, Literature: Production and Consumption. Afterward the event, we interviewed one of the participants, Roger Turnau.

"What did being involved with the Student Colloquium mean for you?"    It felt like a nice validation of my paper and the work I put into it, to present it at a forum like that, in a room full of people whose work I know and admire.

"Why did it appeal to you?"   Comfort comes to mind. Rather than incur the expense and inconvenience of traveling in the middle of the semester, it felt good to step into a familiar room and see familiar faces. And it gave me good practice for when I do submit the paper to conferences or journals.

"How did you find the experience?"   Very friendly, but that's a given. The department itself is very warm and supportive, so I wouldn't have expected the colloquium to be anything else. I particularly liked Dr. Treharne's response to each of our papers. Very incisive and encouraging. So, all in all, very positive, even if I did flail like a lunatic over my one and only question!

"What would you say to other students considering participating?"    Preparation is everything. I wrote the abstract in about twenty minutes in the grad lounge, sent it off, and when I got the email from Molly letting me know I'd been accepted, that's when the real work began. I had to take an eighteen-page paper and reduce it down to nine. This is a great opportunity to tighten and clarify your argument. Make sure you reach your conclusion in the least number of steps. Eject whole pages, interrogate every last quote, and terminate the unnecessary bits with extreme prejudice. Rehearsal is also incredibly important. Whenever I give a reading, I try to start rehearsing at least a week beforehand. It's a trick I learned when I helped run a reading series in New York. You could always tell the people who tried to read cold-they always seemed unsure of themselves. Embrace the performance of it. Rehearse in front of your friend, your spouse, whomever. It was a lot of work, but I loved every minute of it. And it felt like a nice push in the direction of professionalizing my academic work.

After hearing from Roger and the other students at the colloquium, Professor Elaine Treharne had this to say:    "I very much enjoyed participating as respondent to the Student Colloquium. We heard four diverse papers on literature ranging from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries, from a variety of approaches. The papers showed the range of graduate work within the Department and strongly illustrated the dynamic research environment in English at FSU. It was a pleasure to listen to such professional deliveries, and to see so many engaged audience members present, supporting the speakers."

Roger Turnau presented his paper "The Only Cure for This Sort of Thing: Mina Harker, Dracula, and the Professional Woman." Other presenters were Brian Myers, "Chaucer and Fan Fiction? Consumption as Production in The Legend of Good Women," E. Molly Tanzer, "Enlightenment Spaces and Disciplined Productivity in Sarah Scott's The History of Sir George Ellison, and Dave Swanson, "Law, Tradition, and the Advent Lyrics"

Photos: Top, left to right--Roger Turnau, Bryan Myers and David Swanson, Bottom, Meredith Molly Hand, ACES member.

prose by B. Seetachitt