From the Editor

When I signed on to be inaugural editor of JLA back at the sixth Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity Conference at the University of Illinois in 2005, it was with the clear understanding that I would take responsibility for the first five volumes only, and then pass the torch on to someone else. So, as they say, "This is goodbye." It has come time for the changing of the guard, and issue 6.1 of JLA will be my last as Editor-in-Chief. This position henceforth will be filled by Professor Noel Lenski of the University of Colorado. All future submissions and correspondence thus can be directed into his able hands (lenski@colorado.edu).

Since its first issue in the spring of 2008, JLA has established itself as the award-winning premier international journal of late antique studies, having received, most notably, the Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence as Best New Journal in the Social Sciences & Humanities for 2010. Even though JLA is based in the US and is an English-language journal, over half of the 81 contributions published during its first five years have come from outside the U.S., with authors representing fourteen different countries: England (15), Canada (5), Germany (5), Italy (4), the Netherlands and Spain (2 each), and Ireland, France, Australia, Poland, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, and Israel (1 each). During this period, JLA also has maintained a high standard of scholarly excellence; of some 200 submissions, approximately 40% have been accepted for publication. This could not have been done without the valued and much appreciated assistance of a large number of scholarly referees, far too many to name here.

JLA also has established a reputation not only for publishing the work of senior scholars, but also for mentoring the work of younger scholars new in the profession. Indeed, there is no doubt that many of those who will become the leading future fomenters of the study of Late Antiquity published their first major scholarly article in JLA.

In closing, I would like to offer my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped to establish JLA as the leading international journal of late antique studies. To our editorial board, and in particular our book review editors—Michael Kulikowski, Hagith Sivan, and Dennis Trout—, who have labored so extensively in the background. To both senior and junior scholars who have eagerly shared the results of their research with us. To our many referees who have generously taken time from their already busy schedules to do the unremunerated and anonymous grunt work of evaluation, criticism, and encouragement that is the backbone of any rigorously scholarly journal. And, in particular, to the staff at Johns Hopkins University Press, and especially to Carol Hamblen and Bill Breichner, who have taken such personal ownership of the journal, providing commitments of both time and resources that go far above and beyond the call of duty. Working with all of you fine people has been the greatest pleasure. Macte virtute, parentes karissimi atque amantissimi!