Introduction

With this, the third Mosaic special issue featuring papers presented at the October 1-4, 2014 A matter of lifedeath conference, I continue to be astonished at the diversity of presentations the conference attracted, and to be grateful to presenters who have given so much care and patience to converting their conference presentations into publishable essays, eleven of which are gathered here. No doubt, with this issue, Mosaic staff and student interns will breathe a sigh of relief: over two years of their dedication contributed crucially to making the conference a great success and now, with this third proceedings issue, they can celebrate bringing the conference to a most satisfying end. For me, the moment is bittersweet, as I relish anticipating the kind of shape-shifting event that each of the four Mosaic international and interdisciplinary conferences has proven to be, especially with respect to student participants and presenters for whom each conference has provided an unparalleled opportunity to meet and initiate conversations with leading scholars from all over the world. With this final A matter of lifedeath proceedings issue and last journal issue of 2015, my anticipation is much renewed, however, as I look forward to upcoming Mosaic initiatives.

The journal recently released two Calls for Papers, one on “Letters” and the other on “Scale.” Both Calls, included in this issue, offer the prospect of two very special “special issues” of the journal. Two additional Calls are forthcoming, and I encourage you to watch for these in our pages, on our website (http://www.umanitoba.ca/mosaic), and in a number of additional online and print locations.

As well, as we approach the new year of 2016, it is not too early to remind you that in 2017, Mosaic will celebrate its 50^th anniversary. The journal was founded at the University of Manitoba in 1967, the year of Canada’s centennial, taking its name and its cosmopolitan format from the country’s multicultural mosaic, and taking its mandate from the University of Manitoba’s commitment to wide-ranging international and interdisciplinary scholarship. In 1980, the original subtitle, A Journal for the Comparative Study of Literature and Ideas, was changed to the current one, marking the increasing importance of interdisciplinarity to the Mosaic mandate. Now an interdisciplinary critical journal that publishes essays that cross in literature, comparative literature, film studies, philosophy, critical and literary theory, and the arts, Mosaic distributes and is recognized worldwide. First and foremost, Mosaic publishes one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary critical journals. In addition to that, and as part of its educational mandate, the journal hosts international interdisciplinary conferences, approximately once every four years, always outstanding events that significantly advance scholarship and community involvement in and around the conference topic. Not the least, Mosaic operates as a business, marketing its “product,” the journal, and annually employing student interns who, in a “work-study” situation, are trained in all aspects of a successful academic journal publishing operation. No doubt, many of you have “met” our student interns and benefitted from your communications with them.

We are beginning to imagine celebrations for our anniversary year, 2017. We plan a special issue that collects all Mosaic interviews published to date. A symposium is also in the planning stages. Stay tuned.