The Department of English holds a biennial symposium focusing on literature, race, ethnicity, and other topics. Each symposium features a variety of distinguished guests—writers, professors, journalists, and others well recognized in their fields—who speak and lead discussions during the course of the three-day event. The theme for 2015 is “Literature of Status/The Status of Literature,” with a keynote address from Marshall Brown, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington and editor of Modern Language Quarterly.