Looking Backward, Looking Forward

Abstract

Volume 20, number 1 of Mediterranean Studies, which you now hold in your hands, has a different look and feel from previous volumes. Semiannual and softcover, with a bright Mediterranean color scheme, the journal may seem radically different from the navy blue, hardcover Mediterranean Studies of the past. There are some differences inside as well. The journal now accepts articles from a broader time span—from classical antiquity to the modern period—and we have added a new section, Mediterranean Forum, which will feature discussions of the emerging field of Mediterranean studies. These essays will be shorter and more anecdotal than the articles in the rest of the journal, and will help to define a new and exciting academic field, in which the members of the Mediterranean Studies Association share a particular interest.As you read this issue, however, you will discover that the differences from previous volumes are less substantial than they may at first appear. I am committed to building on the accomplishments of the previous editors, especially Richard W. Clement and Benjamin F. Taggie, who founded the journal in 1989 and developed its international and interdisciplinary approach to Mediterranean studies, and Geraldo U. de Sousa, who served as the primary editor from 2001 to 2010. I gratefully acknowledge the generous guidance and support I have received from Geraldo, Rick, and Ben, which has given me the courage to follow in their footsteps.In keeping with its international and interdisciplinary heritage, this issue of Mediterranean Studies contains articles by authors from a variety of disciplines, and from six different countries. In the first of two historical articles, Lorraine Attreed considers how Margaret of Austria (1480–1530) overcame the limitations of gender and personal tragedy to achieve significant gains in international diplomacy, and how she expressed her sense of personal authority and dynastic power in her design of the Brou church in Savoy, France. Enrique Rodriguez-Picavea considers the composition of the religious military orders in medieval Iberia, as well as their contributions to the Reconquista and other armed conflicts of the period. Turning to more literary articles, Fernando Gomes explores themes of colonialist discourse in an early short story by the twentieth-century novelist Paul Bowles. Ina Berg surveys travel writing on the Cyclades islands from the medieval period until the present day, concluding that the islands' attractions reflect the desires of those who travel great distances to visit them. Continuing with the theme of travel writing, Tziona Grossmark traces the journeys undertaken by the Babylonian Sages (as documented in the Babylonian Talmud). Grossmark concludes that some of these journeys were actually religious pilgrimages, despite the fact that none of them are described in this way. The issue concludes with two essays in the Mediterranean Forum section. Richard Clement surveys the field of Mediterranean studies as it exists today, while Krzysztof Kaucha gives a more personal vision of the Mediterranean Studies Program he is currently building at the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland.As you read the rich and stimulating essays in this volume, I hope you will consider contributing to Mediterranean Studies. Mediterranean Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes original scholarship on the ideas and ideals of western Mediterranean cultures and the influence of these ideas beyond the region's geographical boundaries. I am particularly interested in receiving revised conference papers from the Mediterranean Studies Association's annual conferences, and I encourage potential contributors to join the MSA and attend our annual meetings. As I look forward to the challenges of editing the next few volumes, I pledge to continue the successful editorial principles and policies of my predecessors.