With the new year on the horizon, I wanted to take another opportunity to check in with our readers about the past year. It has been a year full of big changes for Law and History Review and The Docket as we’ve had treasured colleagues leave the journal, outstanding new colleagues join us, and all against the backdrop of some major challenges in our broader publishing environment.
Elizabeth Papp Kamali Steps Down as Associate Editor; Sara McDougall Steps In
Last issue, I noted that our friend Jed Kroncke was stepping down and that Alastair McClure was stepping into the role of Associate Editor, with primary responsibility for book reviews about Asia/Pacific legal history. Now I report that our longtime Associate Editor who handled book reviews concerning Europe/Atlantic, Elizabeth Papp Kamali, has also stepped down. Anyone would be lucky to have a colleague like Liz: brilliant, careful, compassionate. Anyone who has done any sort of editing or collaborative scholarly work through–and after–the Covid pandemic will know just how draining it can be. In an era where patience and generosity can seem to be in short supply, Liz was Law and History Review‘s reservoir of resilience. Behind the scenes, she’s helped the journal out of some truly difficult spots, while of course going about her own editorial work with aplomb. The journal owes Liz a debt it will never be able to repay, but we’re nonetheless thrilled that our readers and community have been able to benefit from Liz’ brilliance over the years.
Succeeding Liz as Associate Editor is a big ask, but we’re honored to announce that we’ve somehow managed to bring the incomparable Sara McDougall, Professor of History at John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center, has come on board! Sara earned her Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 2009, and then a Golieb Fellow in Legal History at NYU Law School. She has held visiting professorships at Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Oxford University, and the University of Michigan. Most recently she was a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library. She is a historian of gender and justice in the Middle Ages, with a focus on women’s encounters with legal and religious ideas in the society and culture of medieval France, and has written two books, Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late-Medieval Champagne (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), and Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, c.800-1230 (Oxford, 2017). She has co-edited special issues for Law & History Review and Gender & History on historical responses infanticide and on marriage in global history, and a six-volume Global History of Crime and Punishment is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Press. Recent articles examine punishing women for having sex, infanticide prosecutions, consequences of extramarital pregnancy, illegitimacy and the priesthood, and adultery prosecution in medieval France, as well as other writings on the family, marriage, gender, and crime. She has also written on these topics for Slate, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. We are thrilled and honored that Sara has joined us. Welcome, Sara!
Publishing Challenges
Not a few readers have been asking: hey, where did you guys go?
It is true that we’re running behind in publishing our 2024 issues. Our August issue is getting close to publication, and we expect the November issue not far thereafter. But things are indeed behind, and here’s the basic story as to why.
In short, Law and History Review‘s publisher experienced a “cyber security incident” this summer that made it impossible to publish. Readers interested in knowing more about this can read this statement by Mandy Hill of Cambridge University Press.
On our end, there was a great deal of frustration as we were unable to move forward with some projects and issues already in progress. However, the editorial work never stopped, and we’re looking forward to getting some outstanding legal history scholarship out in the world. I want to thank our authors for their extraordinary grace, patience, and understanding as all of this has unfolded. The Publications Committee of the American Society for Legal History, co-chaired by Catherine Fisk and Daniel Ernst, has been incredibly helpful in navigating these tough times. Chris McKeen and Julia Lindenlaub at Cambridge University Press have worked closely with us, too. I also want to thank our readers, for sticking with us. We look forward to getting everything on track and back to our predictable schedule of delivering to you the best legal history content out there. The same goes for The Docket. Since The Docket often is in dialogue with LHR print issues, we’ve had to hold back some content over the past several months.
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So that’s where we are as we head in to 2025. Like I said above, this hasn’t been the easiest of years, with lots of challenges along the way. But we are looking forward to the year ahead!