Georgia Southern University History Department Selected as New Editorial Home of Agricultural History
The Georgia Southern University Department of History will be Agricultural History’s new editorial home beginning August 1, 2024. The international journal of record in the field, Agricultural History is published by Duke University Press and is the official organ of the Agricultural History Society (AHS). Founded in 1919, the AHS is the second-oldest professional history association in the United States. The journal began publication in 1927 and publishes articles that explore agriculture and rural life over time, in all geographies and among all people.
“The College of Arts and Humanities is proud to host Agricultural History, the journal of the second oldest historical organization in the United States,” said David Owen, Ph.D. Owen is dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, which houses the Department of History. “Being selected to host the journal, and having two of our faculty as its editors, reflects the substantial research expertise we have in the College of Arts and Humanities. This honor will only enhance the value of the education our students receive here at Georgia Southern.”
Past host institutions include the United States Department of Agriculture, Iowa State University, the University of California, Davis, the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin. Agricultural History is abstracted and indexed in a range of humanities and sciences lists, including Academic Search Premier, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Historical Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index, Scopus, and Web of Science, and is available to virtually every major university around the world. Articles in Agricultural History use a wide range of methodologies to illuminate the history of farming, food, agricultural science and technology, the environment, rural life, and beyond.
With the new home, Agricultural History receives two new editors: Drew Swanson, Ph.D, and Bennett Parten, Ph.D. Both are faculty members in the Department of History, with Swanson being the Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Distinguished Professor of Southern History.
“We are exceptionally excited that Georgia Southern’s History Department has been selected as the next editorial home of Agricultural History,” said Swanson. “This honor will provide leadership and training opportunities in publishing and editing to both faculty and graduate students. We see this as an excellent way to advance the university’s and history department’s research mission, and to recruit excellent students and promote their success.”
Swanson explained that Georgia Southern hosting Agricultural History will support the history department’s existing graduate program by allowing student work on the journal to enhance student training, complementing the existing MA program’s emphasis on research and writing. Hosting the journal will particularly benefit the public history concentration, as professional editorial and publishing work align with core tasks of fields that hire department graduates, such as archival studies, historical preservation and university librarianship. These opportunities and experiences will give Georgia Southern’s graduate students an advantage on the job market.
“We believe that hosting the journal will be a significant research and service initiative at a moment when the university is launching its pursuit of research excellence,” said Swanson. “It not only contributes to the university’s research mission, it does so in a genuinely interdisciplinary fashion: Agricultural History attracts submissions from historians as well as sociologists, economists, agronomists, geographers, land planners, and federal officials. Hosting the journal will reinforce that the arts and humanities are inextricably connected to STEM fields in ways that benefit all disciplines.”
Georgia Southern’s Department of History has a strong tradition of editorial work with current faculty serving other journals as associate editors, book review editors, and on editorial boards. The history department is honored to host the first history journal of this scope and magnitude.
Last updated: 9/29/2023