Colloquium Roles

Panel Readers
Moderator
Faculty Lecture Respondent
Faculty Keynote Speaker


Panel Readers
All graduate students from the department of English are encouraged to participate in the Colloquium by submitting conference length papers. Those chosen will be invited to read their work as part of the panel which forms the first half of each session, and then participate in a discussion on both their paper and the theme of the evening.

Participants in the panel discussions are also encouraged to allow the colloquium website to post their papers online as a continuing part of the communal ‘discussion’ coming out of the session. Those with concerns about the release of their papers, and/or the possibility of future journal publication can submit an abstract of the paper, but should also be aware that access to their papers will be limited on the website to BC graduate students and faculty only.

In past sessions participants have said that their involvement in the colloquium offers a means to develop individual papers, to build conference experience as they begin to submit beyond Boston College, and to really engage with the graduate community of which they are a part. If you like to be considered for the role of Panel Reader for future sessions of the colloquium, please sign-up here.


Moderator
The role of moderator is to bring together the several, more or less disparate, elements which constitute the first half of each session: the two graduate students reading their papers, with which they form the panel, and the audience constituted by various levels of graduate students and faculty. This role entails: sitting on the selection panel for the paper submission, meeting in advance with the graduate student invited to read his or her paper, introducing the session and the panel readers, formulating some questions raised by their papers, which can be both directed to the readers or the audience, and also be both more or less broadly directed towards the individual papers and/or the themes of the session. Moderators then direct the discussion which follows the paper reads.

Moderators are also asked to write a short statement about the panel discussion in which they participated, which can then be posted on the colloquium website. The total amount of time which the role of moderator entails should certainly not exceed 6-8 hours over a period of several months. If you like to be considered for the moderator role for future sessions of the colloquium, please sign-up here.

Faculty Talk Respondent
The respondent role is intended to perform a quite different function from that of the moderator. The respondent first of all helps to contextualize the faculty lecture by introductory remarks which help the audience to engage with a paper (which is sometimes on a topic far from some audience member’s own areas of expertise), and/or to offer some questions coming out of the lecture. This should help the audience to gain access to some of the strands of the talk’s themes. They can then also direct any questions from the audience.

The other intended goal of the respondent’s participation is to enact an already established, or even long-standing academic relationship, which allows the second half of each session to involve a more in-depth series of questions and issues. As a result of this second goal, the respondent is usually limited to PhD candidates, since they have often had the opportunity to establish these kinds of longer term, close-study relationships. Practically, taking on the role of the respondent involves meeting in advance with the keynote speaker, to engage specifically with the topics raised in their lecture.

Respondents also run a one hour meeting of the PhD’s reading circle, the RRRC, which allows them, in preparation for the session, to engage with their peers in a conversation about the faculty lectures, the themes and questions which they are considering raising on the night, and issues or questions which other students feel may be of interest coming out of the paper. This is intended to be a low-key meeting which helps both the respondent in their preparation, and engages other PhDs in the forthcoming lecture, both so that they can raise question during this conversation, and then perhaps also during the colloquium itself.

Respondents are also asked to submit a short summary of the second half of the evening’s session, which will be posted on the colloquium website.

It is important to stress that the respondent role should not involve more than around 8 hours of preparation over a period of several months. Past respondents have indicated that participating in the colloquium in this way offers them the opportunity to work closely with the keynote speaker, and to engage more fully with the graduate community of which they are a part.


Faculty Keynote Speaker
Sessions always include a keynote lecture by a faculty member from Boston College. This talk is the basis for the second half of each session and builds on the central theme of the evening, but is also intended to speak, in general terms, to some of the questions raised by the panel discussion participants. There will then be an opportunity for the keynote speaker to react to issues raised by the respondent, or by members of the audience. In future years we intend to expand the scope of the colloquium with speakers from other regional institutions.

Faculty are also asked if they would be willing to offer an abstract on their paper, which can then be linked to information about the place of publication for any essay on which the lecture may have been based, or to other related works by them.