The incoming editorial team of American Ethnologist (Susanna Trnka, editor-in-chief, and Jesse Hession Grayman and Lisa L. Wynn, associate editors) seeks expressions of interest for the role of book reviews editor at the journal. This is a 4-year commitment starting July 1, 2022. It is a high profile position entailing a significant work commitment. The journal publishes between 20-25 book reviews per issue (with 4 issues a year), requiring the book review editor(s) to identify and recruit up to 100 book reviewers each year and shepherd their submissions through the publication process.
The book review editor — or editors, if a team of 2 wish to share the position — should have institutional support so that they can receive books in the mail and also, hopefully, support from their institution to cover the postage of mailing them out for review (except in the case of e-books). Alternatively, if receiving and shipping large quantities of books is a challenge based on geography or institutional support, the editor(s) would need to have a strategy for working closely with presses to have books directly sent to reviewers as they are identified.
We would particularly like to encourage scholars from diverse backgrounds and also teams of scholars to apply. Alternatively, you can indicate if you would be interested in applying for a position as an associate book review editor, where you would be part of a team or collective of book review editors working under a principal book review editor.
Expressions of interest should address the following:
• What is your vision for the book reviews for AE? How would you approach this role?
• Since 2014, American Ethnologist has had a feature called “Ethnography on the Edges” which consists of longer book reviews that juxtapose several books and put them in dialogue to explore the relationship between anthropology and other disciplines that use ethnographic methods, as a way of offering insights into contemporary trends within the discipline. What would you envision for this feature? Would you continue it as is, or would you like to propose a new format and/or focus for longer reviews? (We are open to proposals for launching something new and exciting, as well as for the continuation and revitalisation of this series.)
• How do you propose to organize the logistics of the book editor position? For example, what institutional resources will you have (or not have) to support you in this role? How would you work toward building a book reviewer database or otherwise engage in identifying potential reviewers? What other steps do you envision you would undertake to manage the task of seeing roughly 100 book reviews through to publication each year?
• Please email your EoI by February 21, 2022, to the editors at americanethnologisteditors@gmail.com