On Saturday, April 21, members of the Spanish-speaking community at Saint Louis University attended the First Annual Spanish Graduate Student Symposium in Ritter Hall.
The symposium was an opportunity for both graduates and undergraduates in the Spanish department to present their work from previous semesters. It was also a time for anyone interested in the Spanish language and the Hispanic arts to discuss the subjects in a comfortable and intellectual atmosphere.
There were five panel sessions, each with a different theme. The themes included Contemporary Latin American Women Writers, Methodology and Technology of Teaching, Contemporary Latin American Short Story, Spanish Literature, and Contemporary Hispanic American Theatre. Each panel consisted of two to three presentations. At the end of each session, the audience was free to comment and ask questions on the presentations they had just heard. Each panel was chaired by a different Spanish professor, who introduced the theme of the session and also led the discussions at the end of their panel session.
The students who presented their papers had to go through an admission process, where potential papers were reviewed and approved for the symposium. Dr. Teresa Johnson, Ph.D., a Spanish professor and Division Coordinator, said, “It was a successful symposium. There was a high quality of papers and presentations. It was a good effort by the division.”
The students who participated in the symposium shared this sentiment. One graduate student said, “I was really impressed by the quality of work presented, and I was honored to be a part of this group. It was a good experience for me.”
The idea for a Spanish symposium had been floating around the department for some time, but plans really started coming together in the last three months. Dr. Elsy Cardona and Dr. Olga Arbelaez were the coordinators of the symposium.
With the success of this year’ s symposium, there are already plans for the next one.
The department hopes to involve more of the Spanish classes, as well as possibly adding a culture panel. There are also plans to have more advertising with a schedule indicating which presentations are in English and which are in Spanish, so that non-Spanish speakers may also enjoy the symposium.
