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Our Symposia
Students organize five annual symposia, several of which have been running for many decades. Though each symposium is sponsored by a particular academic department or program, they attract audiences from the entire institution and draw participants from the Portland community, across the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.
- Marking its 28th anniversary in October 2025, the Environment Across Boundaries (ENVX) Symposium invites participants to cross intellectual, geographic, and communication boundaries to examine all sides of contemporary environmental issues. The 2025 theme, Common Ground, focused on engaging across difference with a shared love of land. Through a series of events, workshops, and discussions, participants were invited to explore an opportunity for people to work across political divides, via what they broadly share in common.
- National and global questions of race and ethnicity are at the center of the Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies, created by students to honor a beloved alum and former staff member. One of the highlights each year is the Race Monologues, a powerful and moving presentation of original narratives written by L&C students to share their experiences with racial and ethnic identity. Mixing academic explorations with deeply personal reflections, recent symposia have focused on the prison-industrial complex, education, place and belonging, memory and ancestry, health and medicine, and revolutionary struggle. The 22nd annual symposium in 2025 was titled Sowing Resistance.
- Now over 40 years old, the Gender Studies Symposium examines issues of gender and sexuality through feminist and queer theoretical frameworks. Recent symposium topics and themes have included capitalism, care, fantasy, and online spaces, with distinguished keynote speakers from academia, activism, and the arts. The 45th annual symposium in 2026, titled RESIST NOW!, explored dimensions of resistance, activism, and solidarity in relation to gender and sexuality.
- The Middle East and North African Studies Symposium, which is the newest of our annual symposia, showcases research on this region of the world on issues such as migration, religion, human rights, and artistic expression, among many other topics. The 12th annual symposium in 2026, titled Stories of the Middle East, explored storytelling and the rich oral and written narratives of the MENA region.
- Heralded as the oldest student-run symposium in the United States (it began in 1966!) and highly acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, the International Affairs Symposium illuminates controversial international dilemmas through a series of debates featuring policy experts and public figures from opposing viewpoints. Recent symposia have examined topics such as state sovereignty, humanitarian intervention, populist movements, global development, and the role of non-governmental organizations. The 64th annual symposium in 2026, titled Crumbling Pillars: The Age of Authoritarianism, explored the global rise of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding and the complexities surrounding international dilemmas. In addition to the signature debate, this year’s event included a keynote address, a documentary screening with producer commentary Q&A, a live podcast recording, a letter-writing campaign, and a community storytelling event.
Office of the Dean of the College is located in room 201 of Albany Quadrangle on the Undergraduate Campus.
email casdean@lclark.edu
voice 503-768-7100
Dean Bruce Suttmeier
Office of the Dean of the College
Lewis & Clark
615 S. Palatine Hill Road
Portland OR 97219