From the Editors

Abstract

From the Editors Anita McChesney and Peter Meilaender "Prosit Neujahr!" The arrival of a new year always brings change and the promise of new opportunities and new beginnings. This issue of the Journal of Austrian Studies brings a change of its own: It is the first in a decade that was not edited by Todd Herzog and Hillary Hope Herzog. Todd and Hillary have practically become an institution through their long and dedicated service, and under their outstanding leadership the journal has attained a new level of professionalization. The journal's very name bears their mark, since it was during their tenure that Modern Austrian Literature became the Journal of Austrian Studies. That change in name reflects a gradual broadening of the journal's disciplinary range, one that had been prepared under earlier editors such as Geoffrey Howes and Jacqueline Vansant, and Craig Decker, and was accelerated under Todd and Hillary. They successfully maintained the journal's high scholarly quality while diversifying the perspectives contained between its covers. In addition to a new name, the journal also acquired a new publisher during their editorship, moving to its current home with the University of Nebraska Press, as well as a new and attractive design. Students and scholars of Austrian Studies owe Todd and Hillary a great debt of gratitude for their decade of tireless editorial labor. Because they have left such large shoes to fill, it is with some measure of trepidation, as well as a great deal of excitement, that we begin our own tenure as the journal's new co-editors, hoping to build on the accomplishments of all those who have gone before us. The journal's broad disciplinary, geographic, cultural, and chronological scope is its most distinctive feature; the Journal of Austrian Studies is unique in supporting "all disciplines of Austrian Studies, acknowledging the diverse historical, multiethnic, and multilingual character of Austria, the former Habsburg territories, and their legacies" (to quote from [End Page xi] the Austrian Studies Association's mission statement). Our goal as editors is to promote that vision by expanding the journal's reach. We continue to welcome submissions on the literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—the journal's historic strength—but we also hope to feature scholarship on earlier periods and in fields such as history, politics, the arts, film, and more. Austrian culture, after all, gave rise to Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle; the Journal of Austrian Studies can be a home for philosophy. It produced the Austrian School of economics; economic thought can be represented in these pages. Religious studies, legal theory, translation studies—all can, and should, find their place here. In addition to expanding our disciplinary range, we also hope to increase our international reach. A journal that publishes in both English and German and that deals with all historical and cultural aspects of Austria and the former Habsburg territories should draw both contributors and readers from across North America and Europe and, increasingly, beyond. Central and Eastern Europe in particular are an obvious growth area for both the association and the journal. The recent conference sponsored by our colleagues in Poznań was an important step in this direction. Further such efforts will be essential in furthering our mission to support robust intellectual exchange across both disciplinary and national boundaries. Increasingly, this intellectual cross-fertilization can occur not only in the pages of the journal, or at the association's annual conferences, but also in other forms. Although the pandemic continues to complicate our lives, one silver lining of the past two years is that we have all discovered new ways of bringing exciting content to broad and diverse audiences. In a conscious effort to promote this type of exchange, the Journal of Austrian Studies sponsored two webinars in early 2021. The first, held on February 19, featured a discussion of the Journal of Austrian Studies special issue on Czernowitz (53.3). Co-sponsored by the Center for Austrian Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota, it brought together the contributors to that issue for an informative presentation about the city's enduring historical, literary, and cultural significance. A second webinar...