As the new Regent for the Midwest, I very much look forward to serving you in the coming years, and I am glad to have an opportunity to introduce myself.

First, though, on behalf of all chapters in our region, I want to extend sincere thanks to Gloria Hochstein for her outstanding work as our Regent for the past four years. Particularly for the benefit of those who were not able to attend this year’s convention, let me explain that Gloria is not moving on, but she has generously agreed to serve on the ΣΤΔ Board of Directors as the High Plains Regent. Gloria also will continue as a leader and tremendous resource for all of the Regents, and I look forward to working closely with her and relying on her as I begin serving Sigma Tau Delta in my new role.

I am an associate professor of English at Kansas City’s Rockhurst University, a small Jesuit school which is celebrating its centennial anniversary. I’ve been a sponsor of the Alpha Mu Gamma Chapter at Rockhurst since its founding five years ago, and I’ve been affiliated with Sigma Tau Delta for more than ten years: first, as a graduate student in the late 1990s, and then as a Faculty Sponsor at Fort Hays State in Kansas from 2000-2003. I’ve tremendously enjoyed participating in past conventions in Boise, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Portland, and I have served on the ΣΤΔ Convention and Scholarship committees on and off for the past six years or so.

At Rockhurst, I’m just finishing a three-year term as chair of the English Department. I teach upper-division courses in Irish literature, Postcolonialism and Literature, and the Teaching of Writing. I also enjoy regularly teaching core Composition and World Literature courses. Though Ireland is my area of specialization, and I’ve published and presented on a number of writers including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, and James Joyce, what motivates me most is engaging with students actively in situations where, through dialogue and inquiry, deep learning takes place. Rockhurst has been connected with the Carnegie Foundation Advancement of Teaching Initiative, so joining its university community seven years ago was a natural fit given my interests and background (nearly everyone in my family is a teacher, and I have a long-expired secondary teaching certification). I recently enjoyed working with my students to organize a panel at the 2010 ΣΤΔ Convention in St. Louis on Roles and Identities in the Writing Classroom.

I hope you won’t hold it against me that I’m not a Midwesterner by birth; I am one by choice. I spent the first twenty-some years of my life in suburban Philadelphia (West Chester, PA) and as an undergraduate at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. I moved across the US to do my M.A. and Ph.D. in Irish literature at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (yes, Las Vegas of all places), where I met my wife, Kristin, who is a Sociologist and is from Lawrence, Kansas. We and our two sons (Owen, six, and Conor, seventeen months) are now happily settled in Kansas City.

As I look forward to working with all of you, I hope to encourage collaboration among the chapters in our region, to support and foster even greater student participation, to reach out to schools in our region where there is not an active English honor society presence, and to invite an ongoing dialogue amongst us all about future directions. This newsletter can be an active agent for such dialogue, and Emily, Shea, and I invite your future contributions. Certainly, also, feel free to share your ideas and suggestions with me individually. My email address is john.kerrigan@rockhurst.edu.

Best wishes to all for a successful conclusion to the academic year; I look forward to being in touch with you in the coming year, and I hope to see many of you in Pittsburgh for next year’s convention.