Mission Statement

At the meeting of the editorial board in the fall of 2015, the general editor Oliver Scheiding suggested to establish the new position of review editor. I am honored to announce that with the current issue I have joined the editorial team and serve as the first review editor of Amerikastudien / American Studies. As of issue 59.1 (2014), reviews have been available exclusively online, with the effect that access and visibility have increased considerably. Online publication also offers the chance of moderately extending the list of reviews. I would like to take advantage of this change by introducing the arrangement of reviews in groups related to disciplinary subfields and / or themes. Readers will find the particular focus in the rubrication(s) heading the list of reviews that is still offered in each printed issue. Predictably, there will be exceptions to the rule. On the one hand, such categorization depends on the ample availability of respective reviews and thus may not always be possible. On the other hand, any strict observation of rubricating all reviews might lead to the unwanted neglect of such publications that either do not fit into any common category or that fall under a rubric that happens to have been chosen in a recent issue. As has been pointed out by the general editors past and present, a journal strongly relies on the active participation of its readers for providing a vital space of lively exchanges of ideas and critical debates in our field. I would therefore like to thank our readers who have contributed to this exchange by offering their expertise by way of writing reviews or recommending books that should be considered for review. As to the future, I would like to encourage all readers of Amerikastudien / American Studies to join the discussion—vociferously! Christa Buschendorf Review...