Welcome
editWelcome! We're glad to have you here. (I'll write under the assumption that you are in fact new here--you seem to have some expertise already) More particularly, since I'm an editor trying to improve our content on traditional academic subjects, I'm very glad indeed to see somebody interested in such topics as British Studies Seminar, University of Texas at Austin. One of the ways I try to improve content on these topics is to defend articles on these topics at WP:Articles for Deletion as energetically as 6 years of experience here has taught me.
I think I am likely to have some trouble defending this one if it is nominated for deletion, as I think very possible. We have almost never kept articles on lecture series, which is the most frequent analogous topic, and while I think there have I'd need to be prepared to answer two questions: why is this material for an encyclopedia, rather than the Seminar's web page , and, what is the evidence that people outside the University consider this group notable.
I have also made some comments and left some questions on the article talk p, and I've also made some format changes in the article. I'll be glad to give you what help I can==just ask on the article talk p . or my user talk. DGG ( talk ) 05:58, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
Thanks for the message about my article on the British Studies Seminar, University of Texas at Austin. First of all let me say that I'm unsure if I'm replying to your message in the correct way. If you see this note and prefer a different method, please do let me know. As for the article itself and its prospects for deletion, I entirely understand the inclination of Wikipedia editors to remove a lecture series for the reasons you list. However, I would defend this page on the British Studies Seminar on several grounds. First, it is not a lecture series in the usual meaning of the term, but rather a permanent seminar with permanent institutional support from the Program in British Studies at the University of Texas. Secondly, it is not wholly academic, but is rather open to the public, attracting many members of the public on a regular basis who doubtless have an interest in seeing the details of the seminar listed publicly on Wikipedia, as opposed to being confined to an obscure academic website that they may not find or will not search for. Thirdly, the page holds more general public interest than the usual focused academic lecture series simply because of the wide range and high level of lecturers that the seminar attracts, as shown in part by the partial list of names I have compiled, a large majority of which possess their own extensive biographical pages on Wikipedia -- such is the prominence of the its lecturers, ranging from literary icons and famous writers to some of the greatest scholars of the latter half of the twentieth century. You probably noticed that in the list of lectures I have already provided, there are already in the first five years of the seminar dozens of names linked internally to other Wikipedia pages. There are 32 more years to go to bring the list up to the present day and it only grows more impressive over time, including several heads of state, many politicians, prominent journalists, and scholars, and other well known figures of interest to the wider Wikipedia community. Finally, while it is true that a similar list *could* be provided on the seminar's website, it is not; and in any case such an outside webpage could never offer the reader the internal Wiki links to the lecturers concerned, which is the great advantage of Wikipedia and, I believe, a good reason for defending this page from deletion.