The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) invites nominations and self-nominations for the position of Book Review Editor of the Americas for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH). The Book Review Editor will serve a three-year term: January 1, 2023–December 31, 2025.
The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians is a quarterly, blind-peer reviewed international journal devoted to all aspects of the history of the global built environment and spatial practice, including architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism, and city planning. Published since 1941, JSAH has defined the field of architectural history, and is a pioneer in digital publication. Articles published in JSAH are historically rigorous, conceptually sophisticated, and theoretically innovative.
SAH seeks a JSAH Book Review Editor who will embrace a broad view of architectural history as described above. Candidates should be scholars of the history of the built environment with stature in the field and experience in editing book and/or exhibition reviews; institutional affiliation is not required. Candidates should be published authors of at least one peer-reviewed book.
SAH seeks to create a culture where candidates from all backgrounds and identities feel welcome and can thrive. We encourage candidates from underrepresented and marginalized groups to apply and self-identify in their application materials. SAH seeks applications from colleagues who will contribute to the diversity of perspectives and to conversations about the discipline’s engagements with differences of culture, religion, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, and access.
Review editors play an essential role in keeping JSAH readers abreast of new scholarship. The JSAH Book Review Editor of the Americas is responsible for commissioning and editing reviews of books published anywhere that deal with architecture in the Americas—North, South, and Caribbean, ancient to modern—and that are appropriate for coverage in the JSAH. The Book Review Editor is asked to deliver at least four reviews per issue and is expected to serve the three-year term in its entirety.
Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome.
Required Application Materials:
With each nomination, please send the nominee’s name and full contact information, a 500-word statement describing qualifications for appointment, a CV, and the name and full contact information of at least one reference through the SAH Online Portal.
For full consideration, please upload nominations by February 28, 2022, through the SAH Online Portal. Candidates will be notified by March 31, 2022.
Candidates will be reviewed by the JSAH Editorial Advisory Committee and the selected Editor is expected to start recommending books for review by April 15, 2022, for publication in the December 2022 issue of JSAH.
This is a volunteer position. Although no remuneration is involved, the Editor’s name, institution, and contact information will be published in each issue of JSAH in print and online, as well as on the JSAH page of the SAH website. Because JSAH is one of the leading English-language journals that focuses on the history of the built environment, work as a JSAH Book Review Editor should be eligible for building a promotion and tenure case.
The responsibilities of book review editors include the following:
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Selecting recently-published peer-reviewed books for written reviews.
- Identifying qualified subject experts and recruiting them to write a review on a single book or 2–3 books on the same topic.
- Sending scheduled reminders to those reviewing books.
- Once the text has been submitted, the book review editor will review it for accuracy, biases, and content. They then forward their revised copy to the JSAH Editor for further review, before it is delivered for final editing to the JSAH Copy Editor. The Copy Editor returns the text to the original author for review.
- The author will review the edited copy and return it to the JSAH Copy Editor for typesetting.
- Once it is typeset the JSAH Managing Editor will return the proofs to the author for final review.
- After making final minor corrections, the JSAH Managing Editor will release the review to the University of California Press production staff to be published in a quarterly issue of JSAH.
The time commitment for the JSAH Book Review Editor of the Americas is estimated to be 5–10 hours per week, on average. The editor should plan to work on reviews for three issues of JSAH simultaneously, in different stages of review or completion.
