On October 27, Michael Jones's eleventh grade AP literature classes had the opportunity to present their papers in Lakehill's first literature symposium:
Shakespeare Symposium: On Othello.
Students not only used both the primary text Othello and secondary texts to create their papers presented, but also had to undergo thorough peer reviews, instructor edits, and then more revisions.
Students then presented their papers to a live audience and fielded questions as would happen at a graduate-level conference. "We intend to offer this opportunity to all students in the AP section of literature," said Jones. "I am confident that, after this process, these pieces of writing are near graduate-level work and contest some of the most recent Shakespeare scholarship in terms of insight."
Participants and the topics they presented were:
Shakespearean Intoxication: The Many Forms of Alcohol in "Othello"
Varun Iyer
An Unhomely State of Life: Iago's Shifting Identities in "Othello"
Abi Price
Moral Transitions and Maliciousness: A Study of Evil Influence in "Othello"
Kelly Carlson
The Opposing Self: Iago's Contest of Self-Definition
Chambliss Pierson
The Stop Sign of Identity: Identity as a Liminal Space as it Appears in "Othello"
William Skipworth
Iago's Storm and Othello's Downfall
McKinney Waggoner
Color Imagery in "Othello"
Claire Crow
"I am excited to be a guiding part of the eleventh grade literature classes," said Jones. "I could not have asked more from these wonderful scholars and look forward to our next symposium."