Exciting Speakers at Kendal

On three different recent evenings the residents of Kendal at Granville have enjoyed the opportunity of hearing talented members of the Denison University faculty discuss their research and creative interests. That's one of the perks of living near a college. The talks treated topics in astronomy, history, and literature; our ensuing conversations with speakers were wide-ranging; and after the events were over the guests spoke with animation and joy about what a pleasure it had been for them to engage with a community audience that was informed and curious. Hooray for the Kendal-Denson tie!

One of the speakers was Ron Homan, who told us about his work with radio astronomy.  He had great visuals, and with the aid of this set of colorful projections he helped us to understand how plumes expelled by special stars can appear to exceed the speed of light, and allowed us to peek back into the character of the universe in the microseconds after the Big Bang. One of the happiest aspects of Professor Homan's research turned out to be that it is fashioned in such a way as to present Denison students with authentic and challenging opportunities at research cooperation. So Granville is one of the sites where the scientists of tomorrow will come from.

Another speaker was Peter Grandbois, the author of the acclaimed recent novel Nahoonkara. Professor Grandbois read selections from this work aloud to us, commented on them, and invited questions. He also discussed the category of fiction often called "magical realism" – Nahoonkara is an example of it – and located it in the broader history of fiction writing around the world. Like any good speaker, he spurred some residents to zip off to the public library in search of other novels that might exercise the same enchantment.

Our third speaker was Bill Kirkpatrick, author of a recent book on the founding of our (and his) hometown of Granville. Professor Kirkpatrick used sketches, maps, and photos of the buildings and artifacts of the early settlement to show how, as complements to the documentary trail left by newspapers and correspondence, they can be used to pry out inferences about the character of Granville in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Since some of the residents here at Kendal have spent much of their lives in Granville, this was a talk that attracted a large audience and stimulated wide conversation in subsequent days.

What we appreciated about all our speakers was their quick realization that we were authentic students, perhaps not as young as the students they are accustomed to working with, but every bit as curious, eager, and ready to expand our intellectual worlds as a college-age kid. We probed their thoughts and engaged their interests, and they responded with respect and excitement. Collectively, they reminded us again of how Kendal at Granville is, among other things, a classroom for the curious.