After a fantastic night of Harry Potter celebrations, today was a day of fewer activities, to bring the students back to the 'muggle' realm - the focus on academics.
After their major and minor classes, students were treated to an lecture by Professor Lynda Mugglestone, on Crocodiles and Canoes: What do Dictionaries Really Do? Prof. Mugglestone is an international lecturer in Language and Communication at Oxford University, and her research focuses on English as a spoken language. She has spoken on radio in the UK multiple times, and has also appeared on television, discussing the English language and the formation of English dictionaries. For the two courses for whom this talk was recommended (Philosophy and Molecular Medicine), and for all the other interested students who attended, the ins and outs of dictionaries through history made for a fascinating talk.
In the evening, we shifted from Harry Potter to another play that uses the supernatural as a motif - MACBETH. The Oxford Theatre Guild, Oxfordshire's premier amateur theatre company, is putting on this production on a multi-level stage in the wooded area of Trinity College known to the College gardeners as "the wilderness." The supernatural aspects of the play were emphasized, with 9 witches instead of the usual 3 taking part - the other 6 witches play minor parts throughout. With 100 students that attended tonight, and another 50 going tomorrow, this was a very popular event - which bodes well for the 2 others plays upcoming during the month.
The students greatly enjoyed this play, and gamely sat through the traditional English weather (gloomy and a bit drizzly) to revel in the action of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies.
No comments:
Post a Comment