As we publish the 8th volume of Inventio, the student editorial board is filled with gratitude for the diversity of academic disciplines represented among the papers we are publishing as well as the students who publish them. 

I, as a few others, am an English major. As English majors are keen to work with anything related to writing, it makes sense that while the SEB represents all kinds of academic backgrounds, English majors have a vital role to play. 

While the number of English majors on the SEB and the specific major of the editor-in-chief are incidental, I think there is something essential about our department’s training in English that allows the English major to lead a cohort of such academic diversity. 

English majors need to be quick on their feet. Because the texts that we study are such refined and crafted imitations of reality, they share that strangeness which we often find in reality. Literature, and especially the way we look at it here, highlights those odd parts of reality. People are beautifully complicated things; society is an orchestra of a million moving parts; human hearts are delicate and powerful. These are the things that we look at. And because, perhaps grounded in our Catholic identity, we approach these topics with a sincere humility, English majors are primed to be humbly surprised by what they find when they jump into these topics. English majors are trained to put their initial judgments aside and look at things as they are – with their heart and mind – in order to make better judgments about the truth. English majors are trained to listen to the different voices in the text. But perhaps most importantly, English majors are shown beautiful things so that they might be motivated to pursue the Truth that underlies those things. Thus, Truth brings us together, which is an important factor of unity, which in turn gives diversity its richness and true splendor: the fact that a common root can bring many people together. Many sheep in one flock, with one good shepherd. 

These are the sentiments that we hope to express by publishing a diverse array of papers on April 18. Please be sure to read our letter from the editors if you have the chance. We are beyond excited to hand out print copies and continue to be a factor of healthy diversity as well as unity on our campus and in the hearts of our students. 

Javier-Andrés Mazariegos

Editor-in-Chief, Inventio