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  • Editor's Letter
  • Joseph Farrell

In March, I wrote about my commitment and that of my editorial board colleagues to make AJP an exciting venue for the work of scholars from all backgrounds. I also promised that in the future you would see constant evidence of our determination to meet this challenge. In this issue, you will find the first installment of an occasional series of guest editorials by colleagues who can speak to the issues involved from perspectives that have seldom, if ever, been represented in these pages. I am grateful to Patrice Rankine for agreeing to write—and for doing so on very short notice—the first essay in this series.

Professor Rankine takes his bearings from the divisive events of the recent SCS annual meeting, but goes beyond them to connect what happened in San Diego with standard operating procedure in journals like AJP. Different publications specialize in research that focuses on different areas of the profession. Traditionally, these areas have been defined as literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, and so forth. Professor Rankine argues forcefully that failing to take account of areas that are non-traditional, but no longer new or untried, such as reception studies, works against any professed desire to welcome new voices and perspectives into our field. He makes a compelling case that the rules have changed, or that they ought to. In the past, a journal's decision to specialize in literature or history need not have been seen as discriminatory against any particular group of scholars. Now, Professor Rankine insists, a decision not to publish work on reception—particularly in the contemporary world among people of color—is discriminatory, in effect even if not in intent.

Professor Rankine's essay and those to come will involve AJP in an important discussion that has been going without participation or public acknowledgement on our part. The series will continue for some time—at the moment, three more essays are in the works—and will raise issues that the editorial board should consider in charting a course for the future. We welcome the opinions of readers, both in reaction to these guest editorials, and on any other topic they wish to bring to our attention. It is a work in progress, and I close as I began, with the promise that you will continue to see evidence of progress in every future issue.

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