The Honors Society at Franklin hosted its first Learned Conversation of the Fall'22 semester on Friday, September 23 at 5 p.m, followed by a small reception. The Honors Society might look like a ‘school club’, however, there is no concept of actual “members.” Instead, Honors Society events are open to the entire Franklin community to participate.
The most attended Honors Society events are the Learned Conversations, best described by Professor Marcus Pyka, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program, as a one-hour talk with an intellectual “salon-style” atmosphere in which people from all different backgrounds gather together and exchange ideas and perspectives on a given theme. Current Franklin students, alumni, and professors from multiple disciplines were invited to attend via zoom or preferably in person. Everyone who attends has an equal opportunity to speak up and contribute to the discussion in order to better understand each other’s different perspectives.
During the latest Learned Conversation, entitled "What the @#&%?! Where does profanity have a place?", more than thirty members of the Franklin community happily participated. A segment from the invitation for the discussion was: “Out with your friends? Absolutely. Over lunch with your coworkers? Possibly, yes. But what about profanity during a meeting or in class? What is it about educational or professional spaces that instinctively change our level of comfort with profanity?”
While this fairly open-ended question, typical for Learned Conversations, has no real answer, the discussion gave insights into a surprisingly complex subject matter; students delved into subtopics such as defining the different levels of academia, whether there are different unwritten rules of communication in academia than in other contexts, and the evident privilege that comes with not everyone being able to partake in profanity in the same manner, depending on race and gender.
“To me, particularly striking were the different takes on profanity due to language background - and whether one uses one's own native tongue or another language, such as English,” noted Professor Pyka afterward.
The Honors Society at Franklin hosts two Learned Conversations per semester, followed by a reception that includes snacks and refreshments. The Honors Society also hosts guest speakers and film screenings occasionally alongside an end-of-year event for the Honors Senior Research Thesis projects near graduation.
Stay tuned for the next Honors Society Learned Conversation on Friday, November 4, right after Academic Travel. Check out the University Calendar for more info.
Further elaboration on the Honors Society, alongside a clear distinction on other Franklin Honors initiatives, can be found on the Adventures At Franklin blog linked here.
Written by Lara Decastecker '23