Ken Plummer says farewell to the new Editorial Team which took over the full management of the journal in January 2013.
This issue marks the completion of the editorial changeover for the journal, a process that commenced in Autumn 2012. A list of the full new editorial team can be found listed on the inside cover. In this latest issue, the departing editor and the incoming editors make some remarks. You can find the full link at: Sexualities
KEN WRITES:
Sexualities started its journey in 1996 and the first issue was published in 1998. Since then, it has been part of my life for this whole period but now the time has come to wave a cheery goodbye and to welcome a new team. Here I will say a few brief words about the journal’s past, present and future.
The journal has been an exciting part of my life for nearly twenty years and I am sad to be leaving. Although I started out with dreams and visions, the practical exigencies of everyday life – including illness- meant the journal had to become more practically focused. Although in the early days it was possible to commission articles and establish special features, bit-by-bit I have simply had to be responsive to the flood of articles submitted and the constant stream of suggestions for special issues. We have increased our size from 4 issues a year to 8. (And I note that the other journals in this field have all also become bigger). There is just so much work now taking place in this field- and of course the awful demands of the REF in the UK make more and more publication necessary. But the demands for space are now considerable. It may be that the incoming board will develop more and more features on line that help the hard version of the journal only be one of its outputs.
I have been lucky in having a good editorial board – some have worked well beyond the call of duty, and others have just left me alone (and also left the journal alone). Most of all the generally smooth running of the journal has been down to Agnes Skamballis who has been the key personal front of the journal. I am profoundly indebted to her. The journal was contracted by Sage in 1996, Agnes became its administrator in 1999 ( Christine Kane was the superb original administrator who set up all the foundational systems); it could be said the journal is Agnes. I am so pleased to say that for a good while she will be continuing as the editorial manager.
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I have spent the best part of the last twenty years being engaged with the journal Sexualities. Very conscious of the way new generations shape scholarship and activism, I now think it is clearly time for me to gently depart. The journal surely needs a new generation of scholars to ‘dream ahead’ and to activate the journal into a forward looking frenzy of ideas: to create new spaces, push new styles, generate new interests, make new methods. And all the time to further the serious critical cultural study of global human sexualities in order to make this a better world for all. It is now time to bid it a very fond farewell, to let go, and to wish a new generation and the new editors the excitement, the joy and the success I think the journal deserves on the next phases of its journey.
You can find a draft of my farewell by clicking: Sexualities draft
Ken Plummer, May 2013