Social Currents is seeking a new editor or editorial team to begin a three year term that will run from January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2024, with the transition between editorial offices beginning summer 2021. Social Currents is the official journal of the Southern Sociological Society and publishes six issues a year. The journal is a broad-ranging social science journal that focuses on cutting-edge research from all methodological and theoretical orientations with implications for national and international sociological communities. The uniqueness of Social Currents lies in its format. The front end of every issue is devoted to short, theoretical, agenda-setting contributions and brief, empirical and policy-related pieces. The back end of every issue includes standard journal articles that cover topics within specific subfields of sociology, as well as across the social sciences more broadly. Currently the journal receives approximately 200 submissions per year and accepts about 20% of its submissions.
Candidates for the editorship must be members of the Southern Sociological Society and must be tenured professors in an academic institution or hold an equivalent role in a non-academic setting. We welcome proposals from sole editors or teams. Editors should have an outstanding record of scholarship; offer a vision for the journal’s future as well as an understanding of its unique format; possess a familiarity with diverse methodological approaches; and provide evidence of strong organizational skills. Candidates with previous editorial experience are also strongly encouraged to apply.
Applications should be no more than five pages and should include: (a) a vision statement that describes the journal’s strengths, challenges, and the editor/editorial team’s plans to maintain and ideally raise the journal’s standing, (b) detailed information about the editor/editorial team, including a summary of skills and qualifications for the position; philosophy for establishing the editorial board; ability to offer guidance and support to authors submitting manuscripts; and plans for balancing editorial duties with their institutional responsibilities (e.g., course releases, potential deputy and managing editors), and (c) a very precise description of how the office will function, e.g., who will be responsible for selecting reviewers, how to ensure that authors receive decisions in a prompt and timely fashion. Applications that propose co-editors at different institutions should specifically address how editorial tasks will be divided between editors and institutions and in which institution(s) the editorial staff will be located.
The publications committee will begin reviewing applications starting April 1, 2021. We will offer a recommendation to the SSS Executive Committee by June 1, 2021. Please send completed applications to Gayle Kaufman at gakaufman@davidson.edu.