Belmont Humanities Symposium Journal

Editor’s Note

This first volume of the Belmont Humanities Symposium Journal offers critical and creative discussion of a wide variety of topics related to the 2010 Symposium’s primary topic of “imagined communities.” We hope that these contributions will be of wide interest to readers across the Belmont community, and that they will contribute to enriching the dialogue among us.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Editorial Advisory Board, whose efforts have aided greatly in the production of this inaugural volume, and to the jury readers, whose careful consideration and expeditious reading of submissions are greatly appreciated. Particular words of thanks go to David Julseth for providing the photographs of Jairo Prado’s mural, and to David Curtis as Associate Dean of Humanities and Bryce Sullivan as Dean of Arts and Sciences for their generous financial and moral support for this enterprise. A very special word of gratitude goes out from many of us to Sue Trout and Sarah Bowles, who served as Co-Chairs for this Symposium and who conjured it from “airy nothings” to splendid reality.