It is late Friday afternoon and the Lawn is deserted, save a few tablers with no one left to solicit. The hallways of Cabell and Rouss echo as the last students head home. But in Wilson, more than 60 students and faculty members crowd into the auditorium for one last lecture, tearing down the streamers that block off higher rows in order to make room to sit.
The audience -- mostly Spanish department graduate students and faculty, but with a smattering of College students and professors from fields as diverse as pharmacology and English -- congregated to participate in the second annual Spanish department faculty-student colloquium.
The colloquium was designed to allow students and people from other departments to participate in an exchange of ideas that is common among professors within a department but normally does not extend beyond that, organizers said. Friday, Spanish Prof. Randolph Pope explained his personal research and then opened the floor for discussion.
Graduate student Elizabeth Pettinaroli established the colloquium last year, when she saw advertisements for a similar event. She wanted to go, but it was only for faculty. So she took matters into her own hands, putting together an event attended by more than 50 people last year.
Pettinaroli said events that exhibit faculty research are essential for students.
"How else do we know how an idea is born?" she asked.
Another organizer, second-year graduate student Amy Wentworth, said she similarly was curious about her professors' research.
"It's not very often that we get to enter into the world of their scholarship -- we don't necessarily know what they're working on when they get home at night," Wentworth said. "This is a good occasion to see something through their eyes, perhaps something that brings them pleasure."
Frequently, University professors deliver guest lectures at other colleges and universities. Less often do they talk about their own research on Grounds, said one guest, Spanish Prof. Andrew Anderson.
"Paradoxically, the people at the home institution quite rarely get to hear what colleagues are working on," Anderson said. "This is one way to short-circuit that paradox."
Pope said discussing his research at home allows for a continued dialogue that enriches his work.
"Because we're speaking here at home, it's not something you do and leave -- we keep talking about it," Pope said. "It's the idea of thinking as a community."
The annual series of colloquiums, put on with the aid of University offices and Hispamerica, a graduate student Latino organization, also has a second purpose, organizers said. They hope it showcases the diversity and depth of the Spanish-speaking community.
"A lot of Hispanic events have the stigma of being dancing or tacos -- not that dancing and tacos aren't wonderful," Wentworth said. "This kind of event helps illuminate the Hispanic intellectual -- it's a different surface to explore."
Pope's lecture blended American and Spanish culture. His subject was the 19th-century realist novelist Benito Pérez Galdós, but his lecture touched on everything from comic strips to the new $20 bill. The speech was in English, but Pope slipped seamlessly into Spanish to quote authors. His audience was unfazed. They leaned forward intently throughout the talk, pens poised.
Participants said they came for a variety of reasons -- many were Pope's students or future students, others, future professors themselves, hoped to gain insight, still others wanted to show support for their faculty members.
Some students simply were curious.
"A lot of times we don't have an opportunity to talk to people in the department," fourth-year College student Sarah Acton said.
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