By Gary Young
Editor In Chief, ‘09

On March 25, 2009, the English Department at Saint Peter’s College hosted a conference on Romanticism.  It was organized by the faculty and students of the English Department, the Fine Arts Department, and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.
The purpose of the conference was to give both students and faculty an opportunity to discuss their research and thoughts on Romanticism.  The conference included sessions on the foundations of Romanticism, Spanish Romanticism, Musical Romanticism, student reactions to Romantic authors and poets, and a performance of Romantic works in word and song.
Dr. Kathleen Monahan, the Chairperson of the Department, called the conference a, “Wonderful chance for faculty and students to learn from one another.”
The student presentations included talks by Carmin Aguiles about the “Necessity of Romanticism,” in which she discussed how Romantics brought the concentration of art back to the individual, how they emphasized the rights of men and women, and why we read.  She spoke of Romantic poetry as a way to nurture the soul and the importance Romantic poetry, especially that of Percy Shelley, was important to her.
Suneha Khan compared Sufi with Romantic poetry.  She introduced the relevant aspects of the Sufi movement and discussed how both Romanticism and Sufism are about the individual’s feelings and intuitions, and how both rely on the idea of revolution.  Khan called Sufi poets the “hippies of the Eastern Islamic world,” and discussed how they have more liberal practices than mainstream Islam.
April Mckee discussed Thomas De Quincey’s ‘Confessions of an Opium Addict.’  Davide De Pierro spoke on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and how Romanticism is a very modern movement.  Jonathon Brantley closed out the student presentations with a discussion of the tragic love between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
Participants in the other sessions included:  Dr. Elizabeth Nelson, Dr. William Luhr, Dr. Kathleen Monahan at the Introduction to Romanticism session; Dr. Patricia Santoro, Dr. Mark DeStephano, S.J., Dr. Raymond Conlon at the Spanish and Latin American Romanticism session; Dr. Rachel Wifall, Liz Lodato, Mark Angelo Quedding, Maria Marreno, Prof. Kathryn White, and students from her CM class at the Romanticism in Word and Song session.