Assistant Professor Susan Peterson, Chair of Humanities and Coordinator of English presented her paper, Percy Shelley's Influence on Gandhi, at the Roundtable Conference at Oxford University, England in July 2007.
The Oxford Roundtable is a conference that happens once a year at Oxford University. Dr. Peterson was thrilled to be invited to this year's conference to present her paper. The theme of the six-day conference held at one of Oxford's colleges, Lady Margaret Hall, was "Allusions to God in Literature and Poetry: Britain and America."
Susan also moderated a discussion for another participant's paper titled, "The Absence of Privilege: Deconstruction of Black Reality and the Oppressive Hand of Christianity in James Baldwin."
For Susan, it was great returning to a familiar place, a place where she did her master's degree work years ago. The conference allowed time to take in the vast history Oxford has to offer. Susan visited Christ Church College where Harry Potter was filmed. Being familiar with Oxford, Susan led a group to the C.S. Lewis House built on a lake; a lake known to be a place where Shelley sailed his paper boats as a youth. She also visited the Shelley memorial at University College. Interestingly, Shelley was expelled from University College after one year for challenging the existence of God. Susan also made a pilgrimage to the Eagle and Child pub, known to many as Bird and Baby. It is reputed to be the haunt of the Inklings from 1939-1962, a writers group which included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
Besides the widespread flooding throughout England that hampered traveling while Susan was in England, Susan reports, "the conference was fantastic! It was a great opportunity to form relationships and friendships with educators from all over the US. Oxford is a wonderful place to be. It was quite intellectually stimulating overall."