Convention Theme: Reawaken

by Dr. Shannin Schroeder, 2012 Convention Chair

To Reawaken in New Orleans

To study literature is to reawaken an author's words into a new reality: our own. In turning the text over in our own minds, we turn our attention from the understanding that reading alone brings us. We begin to manipulate the text ourselves, reaching in and pulling new meanings,deeper comprehension, from the words.

Our works—whether critical or creative, particular or comprehensive—become fodder for others' reconsideration. And thus begins a new cycle, with that audience turning our ideas over in their minds, manipulating our texts to extract further meaning themselves.

But perhaps most compelling for those of us who study English is that, through conversations with other writers and readers and thinkers, we renew our sense of ourselves, of what it means to love literature and language. At the upcoming 2012 Convention, we reawaken yet again, this time in a forum where our ideas move beyond us, find audience themselves, and return to us reborn, rejuvenated.

For more about the "Reawaken" theme and other related convention articles, read The Sigma Tau Delta Newsletter - Fall 2011.