Deep Reading and the Self:
A Convivium for Bibliophiles

with Dr. Katie Jo LaRiviere

February 4 – 7, 2026
Saint Benedict Guesthouse & Abbey Library

The Mount Angel Institute is pleased to offer a “convivium” (a “banquet” of presentations and discussion) on Deep Reading, one of the “rich ways” of Benedictine Life. In an age dominated by the immediacy of AI and social media, our understanding of self-formation and the cultivation of selfhood has shifted from a human-driven endeavor to one determined by algorithms. This convivium is an opportunity to renew a bibliophile’s commitment to the act of reading as a deeply human act, one that both slows the pace of information and dynamically shapes the reader through the time, place, and personhood involved in reading.

Presentations and discussion will consider the “matter” of reading, whether physical or digital, and how that matter affects our reading selves; how to read “closely” in order to see deeply into a text’s meaning and its implications for the reader’s own sense of self; and the advantages of reading in a library as a self-shaping encounter with the transcendentals.

Selected texts for discussion will include excerpts and short poems by the early medieval writer of Beowulf, Shakespeare, Shelley, McKay, and others.

Discussions will be held in the internationally acclaimed Alvar Aalto Library – on the grounds of Mount Angel Abbey – which will be closed to the public during the Convivium.

This retreat is sponsored by the Mount Angel Institute.

Meals and accommodations are available at the Mount Angel Guesthouse.
For more information and reservations, please contact Fr. Anselm Flores at mai.coordinator@mtangel.edu

Dr. LaRiviere is an Associate Professor in the department of Literature at Mount Angel Seminary. Her current book project, Medieval Person: Theological Self and Personhood in Late Medieval English Literature, engages the question of selfhood in medieval culture through the interdisciplinary study of literature, theology, and philosophy. In conversation with Early Modern texts and their critics, her research focuses on the concept of self and personhood as it develops into the Reformation period.