#colloquium

by Yuri Hill

Outfit of the day! My brother had his colloquium today and I got to watch! I'm so so proud of him. I hope y'all are having a great day as well♡

I’ll be talking about my paper, “’And Two Bits’: Buying and Selling Love in Oklahoma!,” on September 22nd, at 2PM EST over Zoom, as part of “Telephone Hour: A Quarantine Colloquium”

Telephone Hour is a virtual, weekly speaker series, featuring different theatre scholars from all levels of academia, as “an opportunity to share musical theatre and dance scholarship and build community from our living rooms.” It’s fully free to attend as well! Just pop me an ask or a message if you want the Zoom link or have questions about the research!

More info on Telephone Hour: https://telephonehour.wordpress.com/

NEXT TALK: October 18th, 6pm ((pacific time)) TOPIC: The Void BY: M Mindspanner

S.U.'s Monthly Colloquium Series

Stormwind University is proud to announce its Colloquium Series continues ((in 2017))!

WHEN: Third Wednesday of each month at the 6th bell of the evening ((6pm pacific)).

WHERE: Gatehouse east of Darnassus.

WHAT: Stormwind University professors and guest speakers from the Alliance will present fascinating talks on academic subjects of importance to us all—delivered in a friendly and non-academic tone that everyone can understand and enjoy.

Topics may include and are not limited to:

History

Religion

Biology

Alchemistry

Martial arts and sparring

Lore

First aid

Defense against dark arts

Herbalism

The art of relic recovery

Mechanized automatons and other engineering topics

Performing arts

Psychology in the modern world

Alliance law and jurisprudence

And many more!

LOOKING FOR SPEAKERS

Are you an expert in your field—and can explain it in simple terms to a knowledge-thirsty audience? SIGN UP! We have spots open throughout the year. Talks should be at least 20 minutes (expect about 10 minutes for questions) for 30 minutes total. Feel free to go longer! But try to limit to an hour.

To propose a talk:

Send mail ((in-game)) to Amaranthaea

((Send a direct message on Twitter to @StormwindUniv))

((Send an ask on our Tumblr))

Spread the Word

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FAQ

Q: Wait … what? A: It's a twice-monthly role-play event where we pretend a lecturer gives a public talk on an academic—but Warcraft- and role-play–related—subject to the general public. Well, the general Alliance. Talks are in the common tongue. Sorry Horde!

Q: Isn't this just like Stormwind University's Literary Conclave? A: Nope! The Literary Conclave is weekly and is for fiction. The Colloquium Series is monthly and is for non-fiction.

Q: Come on! How is a talk on "The Mechanisms of Druidic Shapeshifting" not fiction? A: It is fiction for us, the players of World of Warcraft, but it's not fiction for our characters.

Q: Isn't this just the Alliance Medical Association talks? A: It was inspired by the Alliance Medical Association, certainly! But instead of limiting topics to medicine, Stormwind University embraces all "academic" subjects.

Q: FOR THE HORDE! A: That's not a question, but maybe Kezan University will offer a similar series!

Q: This sounds fun! May I do a talk? A: Sure! See above and look for "To propose a talk".

I recently I got into a very stupid argument about being physically attractive. The person that I was talking to didn’t understand what I was saying, and decided that I’m “basic” and should be dragged because I’m “ignorant, illiterate and entitled.” I said, “I don’t really worry about how attractive a person is. My standard of beauty is broad, I don’t think being ‘physically attractive’ is a thing. Everyone is beautiful to someone.” He took that to mean that I believe that physical attraction is not real, but that is not what I meant. (Having physical attraction for someone is not the same thing as being physically attractive yourself.) In a factual sense, one person cannot be more or less physically attractive than another. It is entirely possible to more attractive to a particular person or in a particular culture, but that is completely subjective. It would be difficult to prove in any real way that one person is more beautiful as a matter of fact. There will always be some that find beauty in what others would call “ugliness.” 

I probably could have worded my initial comment differently, but I am a human being, so I am not always as concise as I would like to be. My point is thus: “Since, beauty is a perception depending on the person observing it, it is rather a subjective perception. This ensures there's no standard value for beauty and no measuring tool, making measurement of beauty impossible.” For that reason, I prefer not to call strangers “ugly” because I don’t believe my personal standard of beauty to be the only “true” standard. This is a choice, no doubt, but I like to think that it is a good one. (I do also truly believe that everyone holds beauty and is of value. That beauty can get lost or become dulled by a person’s attitude and choices, but I believe it is something that we all have intrinsically.) 

There are of course, real social/cultural and sometimes economic perks that come with being considered attractive, as well as terrible things that come when you are “ugly.” My entire blog revolves around the idea that we can create our own standards of beauty, and through those, potentially affect the stifling societal standard that so many of us struggle to fit into. There is hope and healing to be found in allowing yourself to feel beautiful without worrying about how physically attractive you may or may not be to others. 

I’m not trying to suggest that my opinion is infallible, evolution aesthetics is a thing. There are plenty of interesting studies about beauty and how humans are wired, but despite all of this, there is no real consensus. Why? Because beauty is subjective and enigmatic. 

The other hugely problematic part of this entire discussion is that studies about attraction are almost always hetero-normative. We discuss human biology with the implication that all humans are hard wired to be attracted to the opposite sex and there is no other option. How can we possibly discover “human truths” while excluding a large section of humanity? 

I believe that beauty can certainly be a state of being. You can be beautiful with tear stained cheeks, or all covered in mud, or when you feel like a swamp demon. Beauty is more than just the physical state of a person. The word physical in physically attractive suggests that it only applies to one state of being, a physical state. Inner beauty is a thing, inner physical attractiveness is not. So maybe I should have said that I don’t think that being beautiful and being physically attractive are the same thing? Or that being physically attractive should matter? I think ultimately, though, this is about more than syntax and colloquialisms. (”Not a thing” may very well be a somewhat regional way to describe something that you don’t believe in?) The lesson here is that if a person is truly interested in you, they won’t try to make you feel stupid because they don’t like the way you’ve worded something.