2026 Symposium Day

Once a semester, Augustana devotes a full day to an alternative approach for learning and opens the process to the entire campus community.

This multidisciplinary approach to discuss a theme exemplifies the value of liberal learning.

Symposium Days include invited speakers, alumni, advising sessions and opportunities to practice the liberal arts and be involved with the community.

The fall Symposium Day has a rotating theme. The theme for 2026 is The Power of Story

About the theme

Stories bring us together; stories tear us apart. To understand ourselves and to build the world we want to inhabit, we need better stories and we need open hearts and minds.

Stories are not just the province of fabulists and poets. Stories are told through scientific papers, mathematical proofs, product pitches, and political campaigns. Today, artificial intelligence raises questions about authorship, creativity, and whose stories get told. This year’s Symposium Day theme invites a cross-disciplinary exploration of stories and storytellers. Let’s gather to consider how all of us, from every field and major, can speak, listen, and enact the power of story, together.