Dance Chronicle’s Past and Futures

Abstract

This special issue, Movement Arts in Dance, Theater, and Intermedial Performance, is the brainchild of Dr. Joellen A. Meglin, Dance Chronicle’s stalwart editor from 2008 through 2020. During these thirteen years, inspired by the journal’s subtitle, “Studies in Dance and the Related Arts,” Dr. Meglin and her co-editors explored the intersections between dance and the sister arts of literature, music, visual arts, and theater. As a team, they worked tirelessly to foster new directions in dance research, resulting in special issues ranging from Choreographers at the Cutting Edge: Contemporary Practices in Concert Dance and “Ballet Is Woman”: But Where Are All the Women Choreographers? to Preserving Dances in Diaspora and Dances of Loss, Grief, and Endurance in the Face of Trauma. Together they expanded the international impact of the journal, publishing articles from Brazilian, British, Canadian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indian, Irish, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Peruvian, Rumanian, Singaporean, Spanish, Turkish, and American authors. In 2015, guided by a strong commitment to mentoring new generations of dance researchers, Dr. Meglin and the advisory board devised the Founding Editors Awards, and in time they spearheaded three successful runs of this biennial competition. She brought a remarkable generosity to the role of editor and a principled concern for intellectual integrity, presiding over the scholarly rigor of Dance Chronicle as well as the ethics of its editorial process. Dr. Meglin can now enjoy the delights of serving on the journal’s advisory board, while lending more attention to her own research and writing projects. In her editorial work, Dr. Meglin encouraged dance scholars to develop strong, well-constructed arguments, drawing out of them more than they might think themselves capable of. She encouraged authors, rather than hiding behind content, to reveal their intersection with the subject matter, inviting them to consider, “who is the researcher in the research?” With an overarching concern for fairness and tone, she cautioned against the unsubstantiated claim, the cheap shot, or the needless disparaging remark. Dr. Meglin pushed scholars to ground their work within relevant literature and to articulate the exigency of their studies, framing the contribution of an article within wider conversations in the field. Alive to the humbling difficulties of the writing process, she would refer to each finished article as a