Editors' Introduction to the 23rd Issue

Aubrey Immelman and A. Lisa Ohm

With this issue of Headwaters, I am privileged to join Lisa Ohm as co-editor, receiving the baton from Greg Schroeder on the curve to the home stretch midway through the publication cycle. To Greg, my sincere gratitude for making it a smooth transition, and thank you for your skilled service in editing the previous three issues. To Lisa, thank you for taking me on board in midstream and keeping a steady hand on the helm to keep us on course as we start this journey together.

My association with Headwaters dates back to my early years at St. John’s University and at the College of St. Benedict, under its previous title of Saint John’s Symposium. In 1994, inspired by Nelson Mandela’s election as South Africa’s first black president and working with longtime co-editors Frank Rioux and the late Bob Spaeth, I contributed “South Africa’s Long March to Freedom” — an article I envisioned as a resource on South Africa’s political history for the South African study-abroad program that was then beginning to take shape in my mind.

As the incoming co-editor, I bring with me a diverse range of experience, dating back many years to my stints as news editor of my undergraduate college newspaper. During my sabbatical in 1999, I was fortunate to have a very good editor while freelancing as a columnist for MSNBC. I brought that experience back to CSB/SJU and put the training to work in a collaborative writing project with a group of student researchers and the St. Cloud Times that yielded two journalism awards from the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. I have also had the privilege of working with outstanding copy editors at John Wiley publishers while collaborating on two psychology handbooks in the past five years.

It is my hope that my accumulated experience will be of value to colleagues considering Headwaters as a venue for sharing their scholarly and creative work with our academic community. My vision for our journal is to raise its profile as a vehicle for faculty to bring their specialized disciplinary knowledge to bear on important questions of our time. I want Headwaters to give voice to our collective wisdom as a faculty at a vexing juncture in American history.

We thank those who contributed to this 2006 issue of Headwaters, and look forward to receiving your contributions to the 2007 issue.