My Social Adventures: Philosophy Club Colloquium

By Ifeanyi Onwumah

I decided that my social adventures didn’t have to completely exclude academic work. I felt I could have the best of both worlds if I found a way to incorporate my social life and my academic life. Just as I was contemplating this idea, Amada Holmes, acting President of the Philosophy Club, suggested the idea of a Colloquium. Such an idea fit in perfectly with what I had in mind for the fusion of these two ends of the spectrum of my life.

At a reading colloquium, I could present papers/essays that I was working on for my classes or for scholarships to students and faculty interested in the topics at hand for critiques and feedback on how to improve the paper and maximize its potential. I readily agreed to present a paper at the colloquium and the date was set for the event to take place.

The colloquium was held on Tuesday, Nov. 17 in room L209 of the WAC. Since this was the first time the club hosted the event and due to its experimental basis, it wasn’t publicized. This meant that very few people knew about it and even fewer participated. There were a total of 9 people present; 4 professors and 5 students, 2 of whom were presenters. I presented my paper on “Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De anima” which was from my Medieval Philosophy class.

My presentation was followed by a Q & A session where I answered questions about my paper and took suggestions on how to improve my paper. I have to say that I was nervous and a bit intimidated by the presence of philosophy academia during my presentation but the feedback I got was overwhelmingly positive and reinforced my confidence in my writing skills. My presentation was followed by that of fellow philosophy major, Zack Nordin, which was also a brilliant presentation (definitely not as good as mine! Sorry, Zack, lol).

The event was a huge success from my point of view and something I would definitely do again. In fact, one is being planned for next semester and it is expected to be a bigger event with much better advertising so anyone who is interested can participate. I know I’m going to be there, question is, will you?

Ifeanyi Onwumah is a sophomore philosophy major from South Holland. He participates in several campus clubs. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.