A NEW EDITORIAL TEAM FOR MODERN ASIAN STUDIES

Cambridge University Press is delighted to announce a new editorial team to lead Modern Asian Studies, starting October 1, 2021. In a significant development for one of the Press's most prestigious titles, the Selection Committee chose to appoint a team of co-editors based at the University of Texas at Austin. The team of four co-editors comprises Sumit Guha, Azfar Moin, Robert Oppenheim and Johan Elverskog (of Southern Methodist University).

Statement from the editors:

We are honoured to have been selected as the new editorial team for Modern Asian Studies. We thank the Press and the selection committee for their confidence in our team and for their support for our vision. Through the dedicated leadership of previous editors, Modern Asian Studies has established a reputation as one of the discipline’s leading journals. It has published cutting-edge research on the history, anthropology, religion, sociology, political science, and cultures of Asia. We aim to sustain the quality and integrity of the journal while broadening its readership, relevance and contributor pool and ensuring that it covers all the regions of Asia and their interconnections.

Gordon Johnson, editor of the journal from 1971-2008, said: "As editor during the journal's formative years I have been thrilled that MAS has attracted so many first class articles from scholars around the world, and the influence it has come to exert on the development of Asian studies. Much is owed to my successor, Professor Joya Chatterji (and latterly to Dr Norbert Peabody) for the continuing growth and the intellectual excellence of issues published in the past thirteen years. All of us, besides having magnificent support from Cambridge University Press, have been part of Cambridge University's Centre of South Asian Studies. I wish the new team at the University of Texas, Austin (one of whom is a Cambridge graduate), all the very best as they become the editors: although crossing the Atlantic, the journal surely remains in ambitious and capable hands."

Daniel Pearce, Publishing Director at Cambridge University Press, added: "Modern Asian Studies is a flagship journal on the Press's Asian studies list and plays a central role in the publication of cutting-edge research on modern Asia. The outstanding new editorial team will continue the tradition of editorial excellence through the fostering and publication of discipline-defining research. Moreover, the new editorial model will offer important opportunities for the journal to be responsive to emergent trends in the discipline and in academic publishing more generally, and will be focused on reflecting the full diversity of the discipline."

The new team's initial five-year term begins on October 1, 2021.