91¾«Ñ¡

The Fireside Room overflowed with a scholarly audience on October 31 for 91¾«Ñ¡’s first-ever Spenser Colloquium. Through the reading of research papers and light-hearted improvisation, students from five 91¾«Ñ¡ classes and three disciplines celebrated their recent study of The Faerie Queene, the epic poem by Edmund Spenser.

Dr. Bob Rice, professor emeritus of history, served as a spirited moderator. Rice explained the faculty’s goals for the colloquium: educational richness grown by student-faculty combined research, the taking up of texts with Christian hopefulness, interdisciplinary study leading to deeper understanding, and a faithful religious response to the world. Laughter and refreshments were added benefits.

Drs. Mark Jones, professor of English; Dr. Aron Reppmann, associate professor of philosophy; and Dr. Keith Starkenburg, associate professor of theology, worked throughout the summer to prepare their discipline-specific research papers in response to The Faerie Queene.

Their research challenged students to see the same work through three different lenses as they presented:

• “Arthur and Socrates in Faerieland,” by Professor Reppmann
• “Guyon, Knight of Temperance; or, Sir Not Appearing in This Poem,” by Professor Jones
• “Calvinists Who Might Best Be: Edmund Spenser and a Reformed Habit of Being,” by Professor Starkenburg

“The colloquium was the sort of rich, interdisciplinary collaboration that I think could happen only at a place like 91¾«Ñ¡,” said Dr. Jones said. “I was pleased to be part of a scholarly conversation involving faculty and students from three different disciplines—not to mention staff members who attended and participants from the Honors Program.”  

The event was funded through a collaborative initiative grant from the professional development committee, which hopes the event fostered deeper understanding through inter-disciplinary studies.