The Long Goodbye

Serving as Editor of Hispania for over eight years has been an unparalleled academic honor. As a teacher, researcher, and life-long learner, I have gained knowledge about countless matters in our fields because of the journal’s broad scope. Editing Hispania demands abundant reading and has provided a bird’s eye view of our changing discipline. This rich intellectual experience will serve me well as I begin my next professional challenge.

It has been a privilege to serve as the gatekeeper of Hispania and to curate the work of the talented professionals who send their manuscripts to the journal for consideration for publication. There are, of course, many seasoned professionals who publish in the journal. Hispania is also a popular venue in which rising scholar-teachers compete for page space. For the latter group, I provided mentoring as part of my editorship through feedback and frequent interaction. Since 2010, I delivered more than 30 presentations, webinars, and workshops on the publication process in the United States and abroad.

As I finish my tenure as Editor, one notes that Hispania’s content has evolved since 2010. When I took the helm from my esteemed predecessor, the late Janet Pérez, roughly 80% of the journal was focused on literature and literary criticism. Currently, articles related to literature occupy about 55% of the journal. The changing intellectual profile of the journal reflects a redefinition of the teaching of Spanish and Portuguese. The subject matter has broadened and more articles have been recently published in film and film studies, culture, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, languages for specific purposes, and the digital humanities. Hispania is now more interdisciplinary than in years past. The subheads that partition the articles have been slowly disappearing as disciplinary lines are blurred.

Since 2010, there are two more notable changes: increased professionalization and internationalization. The journal has undergone considerable professionalization with the implementation of ScholarOne. The web-based submission and tracking system has improved the review process of submissions and shortened the time to decision. The journal receives approximately 300 manuscripts in various stages of development annually and boasts over 2,000 peer reviewers from all over the globe. While the majority of submissions still hail principally from the United States, the number of non-US submissions has doubled since 2010. Hispania’s acceptance rate has remained steady at 15–20%.

The pace of a quarterly journal means that there is no down time between issues for the editorial staff. Therefore, the extra publication of the expanded fifth issue of Hispania (100.5, December 2017) was a significant accomplishment. I was fortunate to share the genesis, development, and several rounds of editorial work on the Centenary Issue with my distinguished colleague and Guest Editor Frank Nuessel of the University of Louisville. The issue’s unique structure and content kept us both occupied for more than two years of editorial bliss. I am especially pleased that the Centenary Issue is free to the public and can be downloaded at www.aatsp.org/page/Hispania.

Throughout the years, I rarely worked alone. It truly takes a village to publish Hispania. First and foremost, I thank our Managing Editor Jennifer Brady (University of Minnesota Duluth) who has worked meticulously to produce many well-edited issues. I am also grateful for the excellent skills of our Assistant Managing Editor Conxita Domènech (University of Wyoming) and our team of copyeditors and proof readers too numerous to name. I thank David Wiseman for his many contributions as Managing Editor in my early years and later as the AATSP’s Director of Publications. Also, it has been a privilege to collaborate with the incomparable Domnita Dumitrescu (California State University–Los Angeles), who is the Book/Media Review Editor. She has transformed and developed Hispania’s review section into a timely and relevant resource for educators and researchers in Spanish and Portuguese.

I am grateful for the generous engagement of all members of Hispania’s Editorial Board. Among this elite group of Associate Editors, I owe a special thank you to María Carreira, Francisco Carriscondo Esquivel, David William Foster, Edward H. Friedman, Ethel Jorge, David...