New editor, cosponsor, and editorial board structure – of Baptist History and Heritage
Charles W. Deweese
Effective with this issue, Baptist History and Heritage experiences four major changes. It has a new editor It has a new cosponsor It has new content features. And its Editorial Board has a new structure.
First Pamela R. Durso is the new editor. Employed by the Baptist History and Heritage Society (BH&HS) as its associate director, effective June 16, 2003, Pare was immediately named editor of the society’s journal. The publication will continue to improve under her leadership.
Pam brings superb credentials to the task. With an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Baylor University, she served from 1999 to 2003 as assistant professor of church history and Baptist heritage at the Campbell University Divinity School. At Campbell, she taught courses in general church history, the Reformation, American Christianity, Baptist history and heritage, women in Christian history, the history of Christian missions, and worship and spiritual formation.
Mercer University Press will release her book, The Power of Woman: The Life and Writings of Sarah Moore Grimke, in June 2004.
Second, The Center for Baptist Studies of Mercer University is the new cosponsor of the journal. Walter B. Shurden is the center’s executive director. The center will provide $3,000 per year to support the publishing of the journal and will promote both the publication and the BH&HS through its Baptist Studies Bulletin and Web site.
This cosponsoring agreement will significantly benefit both the BH&HS and Mercer’s center. Relating the journal to a major Baptist studies program directed by a major Baptist historian in a major Baptist university can only elevate the prestige of the publication. Walter Shurden has demonstrated through various actions that the center he directs both affirms and shares a strong kinship with the BH&HS. The BH&HS equally acknowledges the valuable contributions of Mercer’s center to the improving health of Baptist studies today.
Third, two new content features in each issue of the journal include: (1) a two-page article by the executive director of The Center for Baptist Studies of Mercer and (2) the dedication of the back cover to copy relating to that center.
Fourth, the editorial board has a new structure officially approved both by the BH&HS and by the board during their annual meetings on May 22-23, 2003. Previously, the board consisted of representatives of Baptist colleges and universities that annually donated $500 or more to the BH&HS. The new arrangement retains those representatives but adds three new persons to the board: the editor, the executive director of the BH&HS, and the executive director of Mercer’s center.
In addition, the BH&HS and the editorial board approved the creation of an executive committee of the board comprised of five persons: a chair and vice chair elected by the board, the editor, and the executive directors of the BH&HS and Mercer’s center.
Functionally, the board at large will meet annually and discuss and vote on issues presented to it by the executive committee and/or on issues that it chooses to raise. Between annual meetings, it will function only in an advisory capacity to the executive committee and editor. The executive committee will serve as the key decision-making body for the journal between annual meetings of the board and will present recommendations to the board for consideration during its annual meeting.
Baptist History and Heritage has butt strong foundations since 1965. With complete confidence, we now turn the leadership of the journal over to Pam Durso. She will give the publication the professional attention it deserves. The Baptist historical community at large will profit from her investment.
Charles W. Deweese
Executive Director-Treasurer
Baptist History and Heritage Society
COPYRIGHT 2003 Baptist History and Heritage Society
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
