Special Issue Introduction: “…to tun de words roun an roun…”

How can I express the feelings that aptly describe that ‘one a we’ has been invited to present a Keynote lecture for the SSHRC Congress at the University of Ottawa? This prestigious, national academic conference, annually, showcases some of the very best thinking and research in the country. The conference was once called:  “The Learneds Societies Conference”, at a time when the boundaries between ‘town and gown’ were firmly delimited.  This was the case, in the late 1980s, when I presented a summary of my dissertation research, at the Windsor conference in spring 1988.