Statement from the Editor
Advances in the History of Rhetoric

I am honored to be the fourth editor of Advances in the History of Rhetoric (AHR).  I follow in the shadow of distinguished predecessors, and I pledge imitation as the currency of my respect for them and gratitude to them.

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One can never equal the contribution of a founder but to Rich Enos, who began Advances in 2002 and served for six years, I pledge to continue his expressed and enacted commitment to encouraging, aiding, and then publishing the work of beginning scholars.  By his example, Robert Gaines, editor from 2004-2011, teaches me to be a pro-active editor—not to depend for the content of the journal exclusively on what comes in through the transom but to create platforms for experienced scholars to address timely questions in colloquies and to invite and publish translations and critical editions as well as thesis driven essays.  Katya Haskins, who served from 2012-2015, made special issues a regular feature of the journal, a practice that I will continue, but more even more importantly worked intentionally to expand the scope of Advances, to ensure a robust and inclusive understanding of “the tradition” in terms of the periods emphasized, national literatures covered, and the media examined under the sign of rhetoric.

I hope to publish any quality work in rhetoric that benefits from being examined through an historical lens. I also welcome the work of graduate students, will initiate a regular invitation to submit proposals on special issues, and will regularly publish book reviews and invited essays that assess the state of the research on particular period or topic.

I encourage scholars working on topics related to historical rhetoric to submit their essays to AHR.  I promise you a fair and quick review process.  If your essay is accepted and published it will be available to patrons of the over 2000 libraries that subscribe to one of the Taylor and Francis’s packages that include AHR.

Arthur E. Walzer, Editor, Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Professor
University of Minnesota
awalzer@umn.edu