Scholars' Convocation

Six or seven times each semester, Grinnell College hosts a Scholars' Convocation in which a distinguished scholar lectures to the campus on a topic of general interest. (At one time, Scholars' Convocation was held weekly, or as close to weekly as we could come.) Each Convocation is held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, usually in Herrick Chapel.

In theory (at least in my theory), Scholars' Convocation provides a central underpining for the Open Curriculum. Since students at Grinnell are unlikely to have common texts, Convocation provides a common body of knowledge that all Grinnellians can draw upon in analysis and discussion.

I require students in my Tutorial to regularly attend Scholars' Convocation. We use the Convocation lectures for two primary purposes. First, the content of the lectures often serve to support discussion in tutorial. Second, we deconstruct the style of the lectures as preparation for the students' own public presentations.

In preparation for these two uses, I also require my students to write short (one paragraph) reflections on each convocation. These reflections should be posted to the course Wiki.

On weeks when no Convocation is held, I expect my students to attend another public activity in the Convocation time slot, unless there is no public activity scheduled in that time slot.

Schedule

This is a tentative schedule for Convocation activities in Fall 2007. In some weeks, nothing has been scheduled yet, but may be added in the near future.

6 September 2007 (Convocation - JRC101)

President Russell Osgood: Judicial Independence in 18th Century Britain and America

13 September 2007 (Performance - Herrick Chapel)

Gene Gaub: Beethoven Piano Sonatas Series

20 September 2007 (Convocation - JRC101)

Carl Zalauf - Rosenfield Symposium on International Trade

27 September 2007 (Convocation - JRC101)

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

4 October 2007 (Talk - JRC101)

David Harrison - Montesquieu and Internationalism

11 October 2007 (Convocation - JRC101)

Wendy Kopp - Teach for America

18 October 2007 (Nothing Scheduled)

Nothing scheduled

25 October 2007 (Nothing Scheduled)

Nothing scheduled

1 November 2007 (Convocation - JRC 101)

Daniel Calahan

8 November 2007 (Convocation - JRC 101)

Willliam Connolly

15 November 2007 (Symposium - JRC 101)

KEI-Grinnell Mini-Symposium on Korea

22 November 2007 (Thanksgiving)

Nothign scheduled

29 November 2007 (Concert - Herrick)

Gene Gaub: Beethoven Piano Sonatas Series

6 December 2007 (Concert - Herrick)

Linda Bryant: Music for the Holiday Season

13 December 2007 (Nothing Schedule)

Nothing scheduled