We celebrate our eighty-fifth year of publishing with this special issue and offer our sincere appreciation to the guest editors and contributors who made it possible. Since its founding as Folklore Studies in 1942, the journal has undergone numerous transformations, reflecting changes not only in the academic study of Asia but also in the ways scholarship is produced, disseminated, and consumed. Throughout these changes, our commitment has remained the same: to provide a forum for high-quality research that advances understanding of the peoples, cultures, and societies of Asia.
This special issue, guest edited by Pranav Prakash, Christopher L. Diamond, and Coralynn V. Davis, explores the emerging field of Mithila Studies. The contributors examine the histories, languages, artistic traditions, and social worlds associated with Mithila while engaging critically with questions of region, identity, caste, religion, gender, and representation. In doing so, they demonstrate how research grounded in a particular place can contribute to broader conversations in the humanities and social sciences. The issue also reflects the journal’s continuing commitment to scholarship that foregrounds communities, regions, and intellectual traditions that have often remained at the margins of dominant academic narratives. We are grateful to the guest editors and contributors for bringing together this innovative collection of essays.
This is the second year that we have been using Scholastica for peer review management, production services, and website hosting. The transition has enabled us to streamline editorial and production workflows, resulting in more efficient manuscript handling, improved communication with authors and reviewers, and a more sustainable production process. While we are always working to improve the production process, the benefits of the new system have already been substantial. Most importantly, the time saved through these efficiencies allows us to focus more fully on the intellectual and editorial work that remains at the heart of the journal.
The scholarly publishing landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Open-access publishing, digital dissemination, and new technologies are reshaping how research is shared and accessed. As a diamond open-access journal, Asian Ethnology remains committed to making scholarship freely available to readers worldwide without imposing publication fees on authors. We believe that the broad accessibility of research is increasingly important in a global academic environment characterized by unequal access to resources and publishing opportunities.
One area that has expanded because of our smoother production workflow is The Asian Ethnology Podcast. It was initially established to introduce authors and their research to a wider audience and to act as a forum for conversations about topics relevant to the journal and the wider academic community. What appears on the printed page does not necessarily reflect what goes on during fieldwork—missed opportunities, chance encounters, unforeseen changes that lead to entirely different paths. The podcast explores these dimensions of research through conversations with scholars about their work and experiences. Increasingly, it has also become a space for reflections from the editors’ desks on scholarly publishing, ethnological research, and developments within the journal itself.
Recent developments include a move from Libsyn to RedCircle and the launch of a dedicated website. Future episodes will continue to explore themes arising from articles published in the journal while also examining issues such as trends in scholarly publishing, the editorial process, and what editors look for in successful submissions.
Just as Asian Ethnology has adapted to changing scholarly conversations over the past eighty-five years, we continue to explore new forms of engagement with ethnological questions. In this issue, we introduce a new section devoted to creative writing and ethnology. While ethnographic scholarship remains central to the journal’s mission, creative forms of expression can offer different ways of exploring experience, memory, embodiment, and place. Such work can complement academic analysis by highlighting dimensions of lived experience that are sometimes difficult to capture through conventional scholarly writing.
We envision this new section to consist of shorter pieces (1,500–3,500 words) in the form of personal reflections, short stories, diary entries, and even poetry or song lyrics. We will also consider translations of creative works in other languages that may have escaped an English readership. This could be the author’s translation of their own work from another language into English or a translator’s rendering into English of an author’s work originally written and published in another language, so long as all the appropriate permissions are in hand.
We are pleased to inaugurate this new and experimental section with a contribution by Bhavna Mehta, a writer and artist whose work explores the intersections of disability, migration, environment, and place. Through creative writing, she examines the relationships between body, landscape, and time, offering perspectives that resonate with broader ethnological concerns. We hope this new section will encourage readers to consider how creative practice can contribute to ongoing conversations about culture, identity, and human experience. Her contribution should appear in the second issue of this year that is scheduled for publication in December.
Alongside these developments, we continue to reflect on broader changes affecting scholarly communication and publishing. The rapid development of artificial intelligence presents both opportunities and challenges for academic publishing. AI-assisted tools are increasingly being used for language support, information management, and research-related tasks. At the same time, important questions remain regarding transparency, authorship, originality, and scholarly integrity. In line with developments across the publishing industry, we have implemented policies governing the use of AI in submitted manuscripts and will continue to monitor this evolving area carefully.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the many individuals whose often unseen efforts sustain the journal: our authors, reviewers, editorial board members, guest editors, and production staff. Scholarly publishing remains a collaborative endeavor, dependent on the generosity of colleagues who contribute their expertise and time. As we begin our eighty-sixth year of publication, we look forward to continuing that collaboration and to supporting innovative scholarship on Asia for years to come.