in the Humanities and Social Sciences
History of the Symposium
The Harrison Symposium is a special opportunity to recognize the outstanding work done by our undergraduates in the humanities and social sciences and to congratulate them on their accomplishments. The first Symposium was the established in 1996 by then Dean of Faculty, Richard A. Harrison. Dean Harrison wanted to provide a venue through which Lawrence students in the humanities and social sciences could demonstrate their accomplishments. Dean Harrison died unexpectedly in December 1997 and the Symposium was renamed the Richard A. Harrison Symposium in 1998 to honor his vision of recognizing and highlighting excellent student scholarship done in the humanities and social sciences.
Overview of the Symposium
Presenters are nominated by faculty for their outstanding work then invited to submit abstracts of their paper. Based on these abstracts, students are selected to present their work at the Symposium. Selected students are scheduled to present papers in the format used for professional meetings of scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Presenters are assigned to panels that are organized by topic or field and a faculty member moderates the panel session. Each student presents a paper of approximately twenty minutes in length and is prepared to respond to questions or comments for approximately ten minutes.
Featured Speaker at the Symposium
Beginning in 2001, a student research award, The Richard A. Harrison Award, was established to support student/faculty research projects in the humanities or social sciences. The research is expected to lead to a presentation at the annual symposium. Therefore, each year, the previous year's Harrison Award winner is the featured speaker at the Harrison Symposium.
