A new seminar series at Christendom College is giving students an inside look at ongoing faculty research. The series, titled “Faculty Colloquia,” brings students and professors together for seminar-style discussions where faculty members share highlights from their ongoing research, giving students both a deeper appreciation of faculty research and a further opportunity for fostering the intellectual life outside the classroom.
Designed to strengthen the college’s academic life, the series gives students the opportunity to engage directly with faculty research while fostering intellectual conversation beyond the classroom.
The Faculty Colloquia series launched last fall with presentations by Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, professor of English language and literature, and Dr. Alessia Berardi, professor of history. Sullivan spoke on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, while Berardi examined biblical studies in twelfth-century Paris. Both events concluded with question-and-answer sessions, where both students and other faculty members were able to inquire more, emphasizing the shared intellectual life that exists at the college.
“We hope that these colloquia, along with events in the new Collegiate Lecture Series, will help foster and invigorate our shared intellectual life here at the College, both inside and outside the classroom,” said Dr. Kevin Tracy, vice president for academic affairs.
The Faculty Colloquia series is continuing this spring, with a recent colloquium featuring philosophy professor Dr. John Cuddeback speaking on the crucial role of manual labor in the household, according to the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. These new events — with more planned in the coming months — are helping bring the college’s student body and faculty together in a spirit of shared study, as they pursue wisdom and the deepening of the intellectual life together on Christendom’s campus.
The new series gives students the opportunity to engage directly with faculty research while fostering intellectual conversation between students and their professors beyond the classroom.
Christendom’s intentionally small student body and close-knit faculty community were designed to encourage this spirit of shared intellectual life, where both faculty and students can grow and study together. In recent years, the college has expanded opportunities for scholarly dialogue, including the Collegiate Lecture Series, which brings regional and national speakers to campus to address topics connected to Christendom’s mission of “Restoring All Things in Christ.” For students, especially, these events allow them to connect classroom learning with the broader ideas and questions posed by the speakers.
Other initiatives include Thomistic Dinners, where students and faculty share a meal while discussing the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and Quodlibet events, which allow students to pose questions to a faculty panel. Together, all of these events are contributing to a vibrant intellectual culture at Christendom.
As the Faculty Colloquia series continues to grow, it reflects Christendom’s commitment to forming students not only as passionate learners but as participants in the living tradition of Catholic scholarship. By inviting students into the research and intellectual pursuits of their professors, the series is strengthening the bonds of academic community and reinforcing the college’s dedication to the pursuit of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, both inside and outside the classroom.
To learn more about academic life at Christendom College, please visit here.