From the Editor


I was very pleased last summer when I received an e-mail from Angelos Giannakopoulos of the University of Konstanz in Germany. That one message, which in the first place led to the publication in this volume of only the second Balkanistica article on Turkey since my tenure began as editor, carried with it much broader ramifications. With this communication, it became clear that Balkanistica has reached a worldwide audience, and perhaps even more importantly, that the rest of the world now sees Balkanistica as a place where it, too, can publish scholarly material on the Balkans.

Back here in Oxford (Mississippi, that is), we are still reeling from hosting last Aprilís 14th Biennial Conference on South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics, Literature and Folklore. It was a great time, and we on the campus of The University of Mississippi were all very proud to be able to bring Balkan studies to the American Deep South.

In the immediate future of Balkanistica is the fourth "thematic" volume of the past twenty years. The last thematic volume was volume 15 in 2002 ó Papers from the Third Conference on Formal Approaches to South Slavic and Balkan Languages. Plans are now in the works for volume 19 of the journal in 2006 to be a bilingual anthology of Bulgarian literature, guest co-edited by Henry Cooper of Indiana University and Ivan Mladenov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. This will be a wonderful issue, a continuation of a project which to date has seen the publication of volumes on Serbian and Slovene literature. I feel honored that Henry has approached Balkanistica to publish this anthology, and I am more than pleased to be a partner in this worthy endeavor.

On a final note, I would like to encourage those of you in the social sciences to submit your research to me. Tell your colleagues and friends about Balkanistica. The journal is interdisciplinary. It is not just for linguists, although recently, an inordinate number of submissions has come from the field of Balkan languages and linguistics.

As always, I close by saying how deeply indebted I am to my colleagues in Balkan studies who have served as manuscript evaluators this past year. In particular, I would like to personally thank the following: Wayles Browne, Donna Buchanan, Elinor Despalatovic, Marijan Despalatovic, Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Robert Greenberg, Christine Holden, Keith Langston, Nicola Mai, Paul Michelson, Olga Mladenova, Nicholas Pano, Karen Peters, Tom Priestly, Theophilus Prousis, Catherine Rudin and Dorin UriÝescu. I could not do this without your help.
Until next time.

Donald L. Dyer, Editor
February 1, 2005
Oxford, Mississippi