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The University will serve as the editorial host of the Journal of Women’s History, a quarterly publication founded in 1989, beginning in the spring of 2010. Jean Quataert, professor of history, and Leigh Ann Wheeler, associate professor of history, will co-edit the journal. The editorial team also includes Elisa Camiscioli, associate professor of history, as book review editor; Benita Roth, associate professor of sociology, as associate editor; and two graduate assistants.
“What’s exciting about this is that it gives us an opportunity to shape the field and nurture new scholars,” Wheeler said. “It’s an incredibly important tool that will bring a lot of visibility to the program.”
The University, which kicked off the partnership in October with a lecture on the terrorizing of women in the Bangladesh war of 1971, has a long commitment to women’s history. It has one of the oldest PhD programs in women’s history, founded in 1974, and features a women’s studies program with more than 30 faculty members. Quataert is a pioneer in the field, bringing German women’s history into focus during the 1970s.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity,” Quataert said. “I began in history when there was no women’s history. The idea that I can end my career now editing the journal that comes out of the field that I was a pioneer in is really appealing. It’s very exciting.”
The University will be the journal’s editorial home from 2010-2015. The collaboration among members of the editorial team was key to Binghamton’s successful proposal, Wheeler said.
“Our group worked so well together,” she said. “Everyone did their work. You knew you were investing in a project that you weren’t doing alone. … It was hard, hard work, but it was fun.”
“I think what helped us was the quality of the scholarship, the quality of the colleagues and the quality of the vision,” Quataert said.
One vision the editorial team is emphasizing is online content, something missing from the current Journal of Women’s History. Wheeler and Quataert see the Internet as a way for the journal to reach a wider audience via submissions, forums and feedback. Binghamton University’s Global Academic Publishing is designing the site, which Wheeler and Quataert also see as a way to increase communication among the 50 members of the journal’s international board of scholars.
“We want to create opportunities for interaction between authors and audience and also raise the visibility of the journal,” Wheeler said.
The journal, which has its own operating budget, is published by Johns Hopkins University Press, which sells publication rights to an academic database called Project MUSE. A sizable portion of those proceeds support production of the journal at Binghamton, Wheeler said.
On the print side, Quataert and Wheeler hope to stress broader thinking and highlight the work of younger scholars.