Editor's Message

Editor's Message Benjamin Fraser, Editor of Hispania This number of Hispania's 107th volume is a combined double issue dedicated to the theme of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent, wonderfully curated by guest editors Uju Anya (Carnegie Mellon U), John Maddox (U of Alabama at Birmingham), and N. Michelle Murray (Vanderbilt U). With the UN decade defined as 2015–2024, it is no coincidence that this issue is published in the punctuating year of 2024. In their comprehensive and extensive introduction, the guest editors provide an "overview of the last two decades of 'Afrodescent'" in international perspective, engaging with the conceptual, the theoretical, the practical, and the social dimensions of all that this engagement requires. In manuscript form, the introduction that follows covers an impressive fifty pages, and it boasts a remarkable list of references, ensuring its lasting value as an incredible primer for the purposes of both research and teaching. Conceiving of this as a special double issue, rather than a single issue, allowed for a greater expansion of the diverse disciplines, themes, and geographies covered by individual articles. The guest editors' introduction does greater justice to this issue's content, which includes "articles on applied linguistics, teaching methods, literature, and cultural production from Africa, the Americas and Europe." It is significant that, even with the decision to have this project span two issue numbers, the thirteen articles appearing here point to an acceptance rate of just over 20% of proposals received. While eleven of the thirteen articles are research articles, two of them give a nod to the journal's short-form format, an initiative that seeks to involve K-12 educators as both Hispania authors and readers. It is to be noted that all thirteen articles underwent rigorous peer review. As always, we wish to thank the large number of peer evaluators who dedicated their time and expertise in order to ensure the quality of these original, important, and critical interventions. Last but not least, I wish to thank Uju, John, and Michelle for bringing such an original and timely special issue proposal to fruition so quickly. I believe that educators and researchers from all levels of instruction and all disciplinary specialties will find value in these contributions, which are "devoted to Black speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, and related creoles" and combat Eurocentrism and anti-Blackness in order "to pave the way for future research about the realities and the complexities of the Black Diaspora," as the guest editors emphasize in their introduction. End Page 193 Copyright © 2024 AATSP