The Americanist
Warsaw Journal for the Study of the United States

The Americanist

MISSION STATEMENT

The journal’s mission is to foster scholarly debate of that geographical entity known as the United States of America through the publication of original articles from a variety of disciplines, and, through our book reviews, highlight the work being done in Polish on American topics. The editors recognize that those who study Canada and Latin America have equal claim to being Americanists, but while our focus is on the U.S. we look at the U.S. in a variety of contexts, from historical to literary to theoretical to regional and global.

PERSPECTIVE and DEBATE

Our position as the Warsaw Journal for the Study of the United States is marginal in several ways, and we intend to make a virtue of our marginality: as Americanists working not only outside the USA, but also on the margins of what is usually thought of as “Europe.” Perspective matters to us and we encourage contributors to reflect on theirs, rather than obliterate it. It is somewhat ironic perhaps that Poland’s much-talked about pro-Americanism – an exception in the EU – makes our position marginal in yet another sense. We intend to make both pro-Americanisms and anti-Americanisms the object of our interest in these pages. As Heinz Ickstadt suggests in the 2006 issue, the task is not to emulate scholars working in the U.S., but “indeed to create wider frames of reference, in which the question of what happens in America is not only answered from within America, but rather seen in relation to other contexts.”

THEMES

We plan to have each issue explore a theme within the field of American Studies. The 2006 issue - with which American Studies became The Americanist – looks at the politics of American Studies from a variety of angles. Upcoming issues will look at popular culture and constructions of gender. In each case, emphasis is placed on international and comparative perspectives. We hope to create a space for debate in the field in which those from the margins and those from the center will interact as equals and learn from each other.