Most students will participate in a seminar during their college careers to fulfill their graduation requirements. But imagine participating in a seminar not for major requirements or credit, but rather out of interest about a particular topic - diverse groups of students discussing and analyzing an issue for pure self-enlightenment instead of for a grade. This is the concept behind Flash Seminars at the University.
These seminars "aim to bring together faculty and students in small, informal settings to explore ideas and issues outside the formal classroom," according to the Flash Seminar website.
The program began at the University this semester, and 220 students and 15 University professors already have participated, Anna Duning, one of the student-organizers for the seminars, stated in an e-mail.
The seminars are organized by students rather than faculty members. About 12 University students have taken it upon themselves to organize each meeting, and the list of seminars each week are sent in an e-mail to students who have signed up on the Flash Seminar mailing list. Currently, there are about 1,000 students on this list.
Despite the interesting concept behind the seminars, however, they are not without their organizational difficulties. Organizer Laura Nelson acknowledged, "It's hard to get a great professor sometimes."
Regardless, there are about two seminars each week on topics such as the environment, capitalism, slavery at the University, health care and astronomy. They are casual affairs - students sit on chairs or couches in a circle.
The most recent flash seminar, "The Lost Art of Listening", was held last Wednesday in Brooks Hall Commons. Led by Education Prof. Edith Lawrence, less than half of the seminar's participants were from her fall semester's class. Most attended simply because of personal interest about the given topic.\nIn fact, although students choose specific professors to lead flash seminars, professors choose their own topics.
"The Lost Art of Listening," for example, was initiated by third-year Education student Aneesha Rao who chose Lawrence to speak. In turn, Lawrence chose the topic for her seminar, something she was familiar with and had discussed in the past.
During Wednesday's seminar, Lawrence began by asking a series of questions - "What makes it hard to listen to someone?" and "What do we do that interferes with us being better listeners?"
The group discussed the importance of listening in marriages, friendships and mother-daughter relationships. Lawrence said she was particularly concerned with mother-daughter relationships and has conducted research about adolescent girls and directs the Young Women Leaders Program - "academic service learning" in which college students mentor middle school girls to improve youth self image, academics, body image and decision-making skills.
Lawrence also discussed how to be a better listener, how to take in information, bear witness to the other's experience and ask more interesting questions. She noted it is especially important to listen but to resist the urge to give advice because that actually interferes with the listening process.
Participants discussed personal experiences with ineffective listeners or how they may have been bad listeners themselves at times.
"[It is an] intriguing idea for students to choose what they wanted to learn about," Lawrence said.
There have already been 16 successful Flash Seminars, Nelson said, and three are slated for next week, according to the Flash Seminar website.
Darden Assoc. Prof. Greg Fairchild will speak about "More than Just a Pretty Face: The Business of Beauty" Wednesday. Sociology Assoc. Prof. Milton Vickerman will discuss "Immigration and Assimilation in the United States" through the lens of race, ethnicity and U.S. policy Friday. Finally, French Prof. Marva Barnett will examine "The Death Penalty and Victor Hugo" Nov. 22.
Overall, the program is intended to engage members of the University community who are passionate to learn from each other - students, faculty and staff members - and uphold the Jeffersonian ideal that learning is an active, lifelong process.
"Topics can be things [students] may never have a chance to study," Nelson said.
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