Colloquy Undergraduate Research Journal
About This Journal
The word colloquy means “conversation” in Latin, a root word that also gave us the perhaps more familiar “colloquium.” At its root, a colloquy, that which takes place at a colloquium, is a formal discussion, a talking together, a collaboration of minds in pursuit of new ideas and knowledge. A form of discourse that, hopefully, challenges all involved and encourages participants to both strive for greater excellence in their own ideas as well as celebrating the greater fruit that can result from the interaction of different ideas, perspectives, and disciplines.
The Colloquy was born out of a desire to foster such discussion on an academic level among undergraduate students at Bethel University. On February 2013, five Bethel English majors (including Colloquy editors Roberta Fultz and Abby Stocker and authors Linnea White and Sara Ellingsworth) attended the Making Literature Conference at Taylor University that featured undergraduate literary academic and creative work. They found the interaction of ideas and people at the conference to be inspiring as well as flat-out interesting. Upon returning to Bethel, and encouraged by the presence of the English Department’s other publications, the Coeval and The Clarion, a group of English majors approached their professors to see if starting a student-run academic journal might be possible. The English professors were enthusiastic about the students’ desire to encourage a stronger undergraduate academic climate on campus, and the Bethel University Colloquy was born.