Media Release

For Immediate Release

October 6, 2008

Saint Mary’s is the new home of a leading journal

Saint Mary’s University will play a key role in the editorial leadership of one of the most prestigious international academic journals in development studies.

Four professors from Saint Mary’s, Dr. Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Dr. Henry Veltmeyer, Dr. Cristóbal Kay, and Dr. Ryan Isakson, have been appointed to key editorial positions with The Journal of Peasant Studies. Plus, the international editorial office for the publication has relocated to Saint Mary’s.

Dr. Borras, the Canada Research Chair in International Development Studies at Saint Mary’s, was appointed Editor of The Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS). Dr. Borras, author of several books on rural development, including the recently released Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization (co-edited with Marc Edelman and Cristóbal Kay, by Wiley-Blackwell, October 2008), has been actively involved in rural social movements internationally.

Dr. Veltmeyer, a professor in the university’s Sociology & Criminology Department and the International Development Studies (IDS) Program, and Dr. Kay, an adjunct professor of the IDS Program, were appointed as members of the JPS international advisory board. Dr. Isakson, also of the IDS Program, was appointed as a Co-Editor of the JPS book reviews section.

Routledge, the publisher of the JPS, made the formal announcement through the journal website last week.

Founded in 1973 by Terence J. Byres, Charles Curwen and Teodor Shanin, the Journal of Peasant Studies provokes and promotes critical thinking about social structures, institutions, actors and processes of change in and in relation to the rural world. It encourages inquiry into how agrarian power relations between classes and other social groups are created, understood, contested and transformed. The Journal pays special attention to questions of ‘agency’ of marginalized groups in agrarian societies, particularly their autonomy and capacity to interpret – and change – their conditions. The Journal promotes theoretical and empirical contributions that question mainstream prescriptions or interrogate orthodoxies in radical thinking.

More information about the JPS is available online at:  www.informaworld.com/jps

International Development Studies (IDS) at Saint Mary’s University is internationally recognized as a leading interdisciplinary program that provides relevant and internationalized undergraduate and graduate curriculum. IDS serves as a major institutional location for teaching and research for faculty members wishing to focus their professional academic work on the perspectives, policies and practices of international development.

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For more information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca