Binghamton University has won the right to edit the Journal of Women’s History, the leading quarterly publication that has shaped the field of women’s history since 1989.
Starting in spring 2010 and lasting until 2015, the magazine, formerly hosted at the University of Illinois, will transfer editorial privileges to BU under the co-editing team of Jean Quataert, professor of history, and Leigh Ann Wheeler, associate professor of history. Also on the editing team will be book review editor Elisa Camiscioli, associate professor of history, and associate editor Benita Roth, associate professor of sociology.
BU was selected in a “competitive bid” for the rights to serve as editorial host to the magazine, Quataert said, which has to do with the school’s background in women’s history.
“Binghamton is well-known for its role in creating the field of women’s history, offering one of the first (maybe the first) Ph.D. programs in women’s history back in the early 1970s,” Wheeler said. “Since then, the presence of a number of well-known women’s historians has reinforced the institution’s identity as the place to study women’s history.”
As the first magazine completely devoted to the international field of women’s history, the publication continues its goal of being an important, influential force through its selection process for the articles it includes, Wheeler said.
“Over 100 unsolicited articles are submitted to the Journal of Women’s History each year, but Jean and I will also recruit particular articles by scoping out likely candidates at history conferences and commissioning scholars to write special essays,” Wheeler said.
The intergenerational team at BU was a big part of getting the project together.
“Jean Quataert represents the pioneering generation that created the field of women’s history in the 1970s,” Wheeler said. “Elisa Camiscioli, Benita Roth and I represent in some ways the intellectual daughters of that generation. So we’re bringing those different perspectives together in this editorial team.”
A proposal was submitted by the editorial team highlighting the proposed benefits of having the Journal of Women’s studies come to Binghamton, such as the availability of potential scholarships for BU students.
“The team that put the proposal together was excellent — collaborative, energetic, smart, committed,” Wheeler said. “We worked well together and also enjoyed assistance from other colleagues in the history department who read and helped us revise the proposal.”
After 16 revisions, the proposal was approved last spring and the first issue under BU guidance will be out in 2011.
Quataert hopes the journal will bring more scholarships to undergraduate students on campus.
“As educators today, we are concerned about where students get their knowledge,” she said. “Editors of journals help shape scholarship using articles of academic quality. It is our tasks as educators to give them the same critical skills.”
Quataert also proposes that the dynamic quality of the magazine will increase interdisciplinary interaction amongst students through journal-related events that will be held on campus.
“The journal is about history, but the articles draw on multidisciplinary instances,” she said. “Undergraduates can come to these talks and see that in progress.”