This special issue on Randy Martin brings to an end my tenure as editor of DRJ, which began in 2009 with a special issue on “Dance, the Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity” [DRJ 41(1)]. I can't think of a better way to end this journey than with an issue dedicated to the work of Randy Martin, although I wish he were here with us to see it. This period was also marked for me by a transition from UC Santa Cruz to Temple University, from primarily undergraduate to graduate teaching, and by a wave of time that the loss of Randy painfully marks. It brings back memories: my first recollection of seeing DRJ in the window of Coliseum Book Store at 57th Street and Broadway in New York City. That first glimpse of the journal in its then artisanal form was quite intriguing. How editor Sally Banes got it on a shelf of a bookstore window looking out onto Broadway I have no idea. But, I remember thinking what a great idea that such a journal exists: it seemed to me full of promise. During my term, Congress on Research in Dance moved DRJ from Illinois University Press to Cambridge University Press, which has since digitized the entire run of DRJ from its beginning. When the decision was made to do this, there was some doubt we could actually find all the issues, but happily they were tracked down to an office in the Dance Department at SUNY Brockport, which for a long time was CORD headquarters.
It has been most rewarding and energizing to take DRJ another step along its way toward greater professionalization with our move to Cambridge University Press and toward greater international reach in terms of its contributors and readers. In addition to the U.S., Canada, and the UK, contributions from France, Germany, Italy, South America, and Africa now appear in DRJ. During my editorship, internationalization was my brief, and although there are still important areas of the world yet to be represented in DRJ’s pages, progress has been made through the translation program I instituted. This outreach was marked by an increase in submissions. In 2013, DRJ went from two to three issues a year. Thanks to the distribution program of Cambridge University Press, DRJ is now read all over the world and is the flagship journal of dance scholarship internationally.
Editing DRJ puts one at the center of our field through constant contact with authors and peer reviewers. Mentoring young scholars as well as working with close colleagues has been an especial pleasure. So, I wish to express my appreciation to all for working with me so enthusiastically. As I hand the role of editor-in-chief over to Helen Thomas, I do so with the certainty that she will do an outstanding job in carrying the journal forward into the future from strength to strength.
