Editor's Introduction

As the new editor, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the latest issue of JOTSA. I would like to take this opportunity to thank individuals and institutions that made this issue possible. First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the president of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Amy Singer, and the members of the Executive Board for inviting me to be the editor of JOTSA. This is truly an honor, and I am thrilled to undertake this responsibility. Replacing Kent Schull (Binghamton University, SUNY)—who has served as JOTSA's editor for the past five years and transformed the journal during his tenure—will be a tall order. Needless to say, it was a difficult undertaking to make JOTSA what it is now: a peer-reviewed and indexed academic journal that now publishes issues twice per year with Indiana University Press and accessible on JSTOR and in other electronic forms. As such, JOTSA currently boasts a healthy crop of new and innovative submissions over a wide range of scholarly fields, interests, and specializations; these submissions stand testament to the great and growing diversity of the field of Ottoman and Turkish studies, whether in seniority, gender, nationality, or scholarly approaches and methodologies.

I enjoy tremendous support as I transition to my role as editor of JOTSA. In particular, Kent will continue to serve as consulting editor, and I am greatly indebted to his many years of editing experience. Other members of the editorial team also facilitated my transition in many ways. The devotion and hard work of Robert Zens (Le Moyne College), managing editor, and Burak Başaranlar (Binghamton University, SUNY), graduate assistant editor, as well as that of book review editors, Metin Atmaca (Ankara Sosyal Bilimler University) and Murat Yaşar (SUNY-Oswego), have been invaluable. JOTSA would like to renew its thanks to Indiana University Press and its staff for publishing and distributing the journal, and to the Institute of Turkish Studies, Binghamton University, and Rutgers University-Newark for their generous support. Special thanks also are due to Virginia Aksan for serving as JOTSA's consulting editor since its inception. The Editorial Board appreciates her valuable insights and assistance over the years.

I am thrilled to assume this role at a time when the field of Ottoman and Turkish studies is fast expanding. Many junior and senior scholars are producing excellent work of unprecedented dynamism, and across a broader temporal and thematic range than seen before. The significant number of publications and academic meetings now devoted to Ottoman and Turkish studies annually is an eloquent index of the lively intellectual scene in our field internationally. We will expand JOTSA's horizons to showcase this recent surge. While it is true that studies on late Ottoman and early Turkish history have been more visible at JOTSA to date, reflecting the state of the field more generally (and these will of course continue to be crucial to our mission going forward), we are very keen to receive article submissions in many other areas and periods of research, including late medieval and early modern Ottoman history, history of science, medicine, and environment, history of material culture and daily life, and art history, among other fields. We are equally interested in publishing studies that explore the connections of Ottoman and Turkish studies to related fields of scholarship, including those by specialists in Venetian, Mamluk, Safavid, Mughal, and Central Asian history, or global historians exploring connections across geographical areas stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. In the same broadly ecumenical vein, we invite scholars in all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, political science, philosophy, law, women's and gender studies, and ethnomusicology, to send us their work. As we expand our areas of interest, we look to the guidance of established scholars in the field; to that end, we will add several new members to our Editorial Board. Along similar lines, we will also add new book review editors to be sure of covering all relevant publications in the field—more broadly defined than ever before.

JOTSA...