The 9^th annual T.H.B. Symons Seminar Series Gala, which took place on Friday, April 11, 2014, was a huge success with over a hundred guests in attendance this year. Guests were first impressed upon arrival at the gala’s beautiful venue, the McDonnel St. Activity Centre. Dressed in their semi-formal best, academics and non-academics alike spent the remainder of a very classy evening schmoozing while being catered to with delectable eats from Parkhill on Hunter, and entertained by presenters.

The T.H.B. Symons Seminar Series, via seven monthly seminar nights, provides a platform for graduate student speakers from the humanities, social sciences and sciences to share their research not only with their peers, but also with the Trent and Peterborough communities. The forum encourages socializing and networking in order to “bridge the gap” (the Series’ motto) both literally between the two sides of the campus across the river at Trent University, and figuratively between disciplines. Speakers are chosen by a graduate student abstract selection committee, and ranked by a graduate student judging panel based on their communication abilities.  The top speaker, along with being granted a cash award and the Symons Award of Excellence, is invited to present their talk at the Gala each year.

The Gala started off with a bang as guests were greeted by the lovely and amicable Symons Seminar Series Executive, Morgan Wehtje (Financial Coordinator) and Lanna Desantis (Communications Coordinator). After being presented with cocktail tickets, guests were welcomed to indulge in hot and cold finger foods, which remained available over the course of the evening. The catering was impeccable and excluded no one, as a wide variety of food was available including items for omnivorous, vegan and gluten-free diets. Guests were also welcomed to peruse the donated items at the silent auction table during the course of the events.  The items up for grabs in the silent auction included some wonderful art pieces donated by local artists (paintings, carvings and knitted crafts), a signed book from Professor Thomas H.B. Symons himself, and a delightful French inspired home cooked meal by Dr. & Mrs. March (Dr. March is a Professor Emeritus of Chemistry).

After some snacking, a look at the silent auction, and some cocktails, guests were then invited to sit for the first presenter of the evening – the winner of this year’s Seminar Series and the top Science speaker, Environmental & Life Sciences doctoral candidate, Amanda Bennett - who discussed how ”maternal investment influences anti-predator responses in tadpoles.”  The talk may sound complicated if one reads the title alone, but Amanda did a brilliant job of presenting the basic background information, research methodology and the overall results in a comprehensible, succinct manner, complete with captivating photos, illustrations and humour to entertain the crowd. And you didn’t have to be a scientist to know what she was talking about.  Many non-academics and non-scientists commented on how informative and entertaining the talk was as a whole. Amanda did a fantastic job of “bridging the gap” between researchers and the general public, and was thus a deserving recipient of the Symons Award of Excellence.  A big congratulations also to this year’s top Arts speaker and Runner-up, Anthropology graduate student, Philip Cook, who spoke about “the ‘energetics’ of Mycenaean citadels: labour, power, and fortification construction in middle and late Bronze Age Greece (ca. 1600-1200 BC)” at the February seminar night.

Next on the event list was an academic poster session. Since there are only 14 speaking positions in the Seminar Series, the Coordinators decided to give all students submitting an abstract in the 2013-2014 academic year an opportunity to present to their research through visual displays to the Gala attendees and volunteer faculty judges; a new (and possibly inaugural) idea for the Gala this year. ”We really wanted to give as many students as possible a chance to share their work within the seminar series, and we hope the poster session will be a part of next year’s Gala as well,” explained Morgan Wehtje, one of the Coordinators. Eight students participated and topics ranged from stress physiology in camels to the prediction of future flood events using climate change data. Posters were well prepared and presenters were eager to deal with any tough questions that guests or judges may have had. A cash prize was given to the top poster in an Arts program, and to the top poster in a Science program. Winners for the poster session were Kaitlyn Watson, an MA student in the Canadian Studies & Indigenous Studies program, who presented on aboriginal education in Ontario, and Kaiti Nixon, an M.Sc. student in the Environmental & Life Sciences program, who presented on coyote predation on Ontario domestic sheep

After mingling with the poster presenters and grabbing a cup of coffee and some delightful desserts, guests then sat down to listen to the keynote address from Dr. Zachary Ernst on “barriers to interdisciplinary research and what [we] can do about them right now”; a highly appropriate topic for the Symons Seminar Series, which promotes bridging the gap between disciplines. Dr. Ernst is currently a software engineer at Narrative Science in Chicago IL, a company that distils information from large data sets into easily digestible prose. Previously, Dr. Ernst was a tenured professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Missouri. His insights into barriers that universities erect - perhaps unconsciously, perhaps intentionally - in terms of what a researcher can and cannot focus on in their research was eye opening. It seems Trent is perhaps one of a few rare gems in the academic world in that it supports its researchers in their interdisciplinary pursuits if they so choose them. Dr. Ernst’s depiction of personal experiences showed the audience how some universities gear researchers into specialities through critiques on their work choices, the tenure process (being based on one’s proficiency in a specific field of study), and pay raises (for those who excel in specialities).  Some in the crowd debated that academics should be the keepers of knowledge and have people who are specialists. Even with this truth, it should perhaps not extend to the whole of the academic world. Researchers interested in many topics or whose talents permeate over various disciplines should be allowed to pursue their interests as long as they remain active and productive members of the scientific community. Logically, this can only be beneficial because it often leads to the sharing of ideas, which is the basis of innovation.

Dr. Ernst was entertaining and a joy to listen to, and his points were valid and applicable to graduate students and academics of all disciplines. He opened our minds to the fact that we need to make some changes in the coming years in terms of how we view and judge interdisciplinary work; such a fitting talk to bring another great year of the Symons Seminar Series to a close. I don’t know about the rest of the students on campus, but next year this author and new graduate student will definitely be going to the Wednesday night Symons Seminars and attending the Gala once again. The forum provides a fantastic place to expand learning beyond the scope of the disciplines we choose to work in and I, for one, will not miss a minute of it.