Note from the Editor

With this issue, a new editorial team is taking responsibility for putting together the German Studies Review. I feel honored to have been selected in 2010 as the incoming editor by a search committee of the German Studies Association (GSA), and I will work hard to fulfill the high expectations and great responsibilities placed upon me. Over the next five years, I hope we can make the journal the leading venue for the interdisciplinary project of German studies. As evidenced by the different look of the journal, the change in editorship also brings with it a new working relationship between Johns Hopkins University Press and the German Studies Association. While the redesign of the journal’s interior and exterior and its annually changing colors pay homage to modern German design, including Bauhaus textile design and Edition Suhrkamp’s famous rainbow colors, the association with one of the most respected American university presses will allow us to benefit from the fundamental changes in publishing, including through Project Muse.

Two colleagues are now in charge of the book review section, Andrew Port of Wayne State University, who is responsible for books on history, sociology, and political science, and Carl Niekerk of the University of Illinois, who is responsible for books on literature, film, musicology, and art history. Henceforth the book review section will feature a substantial review essay and a smaller number of longer reviews. Similarly, a new editorial board has been chosen to reflect the range of disciplines and perspectives represented in the GSA and now includes, for example, art historians and younger members who, after all, are the future of the association. We will continue to make every possible effort to serve the interests of the entire membership and to broaden the reach and scope of the journal. We hope to make the German Studies Review a showcase for the diverse topics and methodologies presented at the GSA’s annual conventions and to contribute actively to major trends in historical, literary, filmic, musicological, sociological, political science, and art historical scholarship. But we need your submissions and contributions to realize that ambitious goal.

This transition is an appropriate moment to thank the previous editor, Diethelm Prowe of Carleton College, and book review editor, Elizabeth Ametsbichler of the University of Montana, for their many years of outstanding service to the journal and the association. We owe them all an enormous debt of gratitude. This and the next issue will still feature articles and reviews accepted during their editorship; marking the transition on the programmatic level, the third issue of volume 35 will include a series of position statements by members of the new editorial board. Please join me in thanking all colleagues who have agreed to volunteer their time as book review editors or editorial board members. We intend to serve you and the field well and hope that in the coming years you will consider publishing the results of your research in German Studies Review.