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Beginning in July, 2004, the Journal of Women's History is moving from Ohio
State University to the University of Illinois, where it will be jointly edited
by Jean Allman and Antoinette Burton for a tenure of 5 years. This is an especially
exciting moment for us to undertake the editorship of the Journal. Over the
course of almost a decade and a half, the Journal has successfully bridged the
divide between "women's" and "gender" history by oregrounding
women as active historical subjects in a multiplicity of places and times. In
doing so, it has not just restored women to History, but has demonstrated the
manifold ways in which women as gendered actors transform the historical landscape.
As joint editors, we intend to build upon the journal's impressive legacy of
feminist historical work by continuing its tradition of sound and innovative
scholarship that at once showcases state-of-the art research in women's and
gender history and points to new avenues of historical inquiry. We look forward,
therefore, to maintaining the journal's tradition of producing special issues
focused on innovative scholarship -- a tradition that we envision incorporating
symposia, conferences and ultimately special issues around themes central to
the scholarly concerns of faculty and graduate students both in and outside
of the United States. Among some of the themes which we hope to coordinate are:
prisons and police; gender and environment; feminist working-class history;
fashion and politics; queering women's history; and film and television.
We also hope to enhance the Journal's consideration of international, transnational,
and global issues, from pre-modern times through the recent past. As scholars
of regions and subjects outside of Euro-America, our commitments grow out of
a belief that the world of women whose histories the journal has been dedicated
to making visible must continuously be enlarged, even as new subjects -- both
individual and thematic - continue to emerge, and as historians work to meet
the challenges of a rapidly
changing world. We speak here not as advocates of presentism, but as scholars
who believe that it is the responsibility of historians to recognize the pressures
of the present on the writing of the past, especially in a context where women
and their histories are continuously invoked as the bases of new national, imperial
and global political agendas.
This means, in the first instance, seeking out and nurturing scholarship produced
beyond the confines of the Euro-American academy and the discipline of history
as traditionally defined. We realize that this is much easier said than done,
and that over the years the Journal of Women's History has been at
the forefront of academic publications seeking to expand the horizons of readers
of women's history. With this announcement (as well as through a variety of
other means), we invite submissions from
scholars teaching and writing outside of the U.S., including those who operate
outside the discipline but whose research and methods engage directly with the
problems of "history." We also encourage submissions from
practitioners of transnational and comparative histories, fields that have been
led by historians of women and gender in ways not always recognized.
Finally, we are planning several new occasional sections for the Journal. The
"Book Forum" will focus on a well-established monograph, upon which
a variety of interlocutors will be asked to reflect from different regional
and temporal perspectives. "History Practice" will feature think-pieces
that engage questions of the archive, teaching, activism and contemporary
political questions as they relate to women, history and women's history --
again, from transnational and comparative as well as national perspectives.
After July 15th manuscripts should be sent to:
The Journal of Women's History
Department of History
University of Illinois
309 Gregory Hall
810 S. Wright Street
MC 466
Urbana IL 61801
USA