Welcome to the Web site for Science, Society, and the Arts, a research conference at Washington and Lee University. The next conference will take place Friday, March 4, 2011 on the Washington and Lee campus.

Science, Society, and the Arts is a multi-disciplinary conference involving Washington and Lee undergraduates and law students in the presentation of their academic achievements before an audience of their peers and the faculty. Conference participants may make oral presentations of research papers on traditional academic-conference-style panels, deliver research results in poster sessions, or present creative work. Students may also choose to participate in colloquia organized around common readings proposed by interested students and faculty.

The first Science, Society, and the Arts conference, held on a Saturday in November 2004, attracted nearly 300 participants from throughout the campus community. Students presented research in a wide range of the disciplines including geology, politics, anthropology, history, and management, to name just a few. Book colloquia treating everything from the work of our poet laureate to commentaries on American foreign policy attracted 150 staff, students, and faculty. More than 140 conference-goers gathered at a luncheon with keynote speaker physicist and bestselling novelist Alan Lightman.