Current Volume: Volume 13 (2023) October 2023

Notes from the Editor: Volume 13 (2023)

This year has been an unusual one, given that there were more submissions than the number of items that were accepted. I have always been more interested in quality than quantity. Volume 13 does not look like past volumes, it is the thinnest of all volumes.

This year’s volume begins with a review essay by Edward Sankowski and Betty J. Harris, two of ID’s assistant editors, who will focus on Slavoj Žižek’s new book Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed (Bloomsbury, 2022), followed by a review of two works by Mette Lebech by Robert McNamara. It ends with two Discussion pieces dealing with Kosovo. The first by Seb Bytci, entitled “Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue: Development Fund for Municipalities in the North of Kosovo” and the second by myself, “Objects Supporting/Resisting a Democracy and Resisting an Occupation: Two Sides of the Same Coin—Kosovo and The Occupied Territories.”

I thank the editors, staff, and board members for their assistance in putting together Volume 13. I want to thank Kathryn A. Cox Schwartz, who has served as editorial assistant since the inception of ID, and the Executive Committee of The Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights at UNO for its continued financial support. I also thank Angela Brown for her continued work as administrative assistant. It was because of Angela’s suggestion that ID is now accessed through Digital Commons. This has increased the journal’s readership and allows us to track who is reading ID. We also had two interns for this volume: Richard Baus, a graduate student in UNO’s Critical and Creative Thinking program, and Anastasia Rogers, an undergraduate at UNO.

There is still a need for additional board members and various editors. Interested individuals should send a letter of interest and an abridged CV to rconces@unomaha.edu.

I thank all those who reviewed manuscript submissions to ID over the past several months. I am grateful for their adherence to deadlines and, most importantly, their insightful comments to both editors and authors. The following list includes board members and external referees who reviewed submissions for Volume 13:

• Miranda Corcoran, University College Cork (Ireland)
• Michael Page, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Phillip Drake, University of Kansas
• Ugo Vlaisavljević, University of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Edward Sankowski, University of Oklahoma
• Bernard Harbaš, University of Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Finally, on behalf of the editorial staff, I sadly announce the passing of one of the original associate editors of ID, Paul Kreise (1943–2021). I was befriended by Paul during the early 1990s at the annual Third World Studies Conference at UNO. We even shared being victims in a car accident, in which my car was rear ended and totaled. We both walked away, but Paul had a neck injury for some time. Whenever I needed another set of eyes to look at a submission or perhaps review a book, he was always available. He was a professor emeritus of political science and a chair member of the Department of Arts and Culture at Indiana University East. He was a strong supporter of peace studies and social justice. Surely, this support had something to do with his being a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Paul was not just a theorist on these matters, but he was also a practitioner. His energy, spirit, and wisdom have been missed. People like Paul are few in number.

• R.J.C.
• Omaha

Table of Contents

Notes from the Editor

Review Essay

Book Review

Discussions