Constructing a Community of Thought: Letters on the Scholarship, Teaching and Mentoring of Vera John-Steiner

This symposium will present a multifaceted, polyphonic (Bakhtin, 1984, p. 69) dialogic and personal portrait of the life and scholarship of Vera John-Steiner through first-hand biographical narratives and interpretative reflection on Vera’s work, with a view toward critiquing and expanding the central themes of her work to the present and future. This will be accomplished through the discourses expressed in the reading and discussion of the content of personal letters (Nieto, 2010) followed by dialogue from the discussants and those in attendance.