Letter from the Editors

We are excited to be bringing AMEWS members the new Review, one that has changed in several ways and one that is definitely a work in progress. We are aware that many of you were wondering what happened to the Review and if it would ever appear again. This letter should answer some of those questions as well as describe the new direction the Review will take.

With the decision by AMEWS to begin publication of JMEWS, the Journal of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies, the Review lost its major focus, namely, the reviewing of scholarly monographs and collections on the topic of Middle Eastern women. The Review under a succession of extremely capable editors was always much more than that, of course. It included articles on a variety of topics, letters from readers and served as the primary link among members who might not see or talk to each other except at MESA’s annual meeting. The non-review aspects of the Review will remain, but still, it had to be re-invented and re-imagined as well re-formatted as an exclusively electronic journal. It also had to be re-named, and by consensus of the AMEWS board, it has become the AMEWS Online Newsletter. The new Online Newsletter will appear only electronically as a link from the AMEWS website and will also be available on the website as a PDF file for download. Taking care of the electronic part of re-inventing the Online Newsletter was almost the easy part, although it involved the creation of a new website and a search for a new webmaster. AMEWS is now paying for an off-campus website, which has a new webmaster, Christine Gregory. AMEWS thanks its former webmaster, Marlyn Tadros, who gave generously of her time for many years.

The more difficult part of re-inventing the Review was to chart a new direction and to decide what its content should be absent the book reviews that had provided most of the written material for each edition. We haven’t solved the problem of content quite yet, although we have some ideas for future editions of the Online Newsletter including an overview of women’s studies programs in the Middle East; a tribute to Cynthia Nelson, who will be missed not only as a scholar but also as a friend, and a forum on how our members are teaching about Middle Eastern women in the university. Our first issue continues a pattern from previous Reviews in the presentation of summaries of interesting panels from the 2005 MESA meeting in Washington, D.C. There will be a space for letters from our readers and a Notes from Members section where we will post news about academic postings, grant awards, papers presented at conferences, articles and books published, upcoming conferences and other items of interest to members. Graduate students will also have space in the Online Newsletter. Members should continue to send articles of interest to us for publication. If any of our members are blogging and would like to link their blogs to the Newsletter, let us know. Finally, we are looking for graphic art or photography to serve as the logo for the new Newsletter. Please send us electronic copies of your photos, drawings, etc., that you think would be appropriate for the Newsletter. We’d love to use the contributions from our members on the new electronic “front page.” 

As the editors, we look forward to the challenge of publishing a Newsletter that will continue to serve the interests and needs of AMEWS members.

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Fay, editor
mfay@american.edu

Caroline Seymour-Jorn, associate editor
csjorn@uwm.edu