Anthropology of East Europe Review 31 (1) Spring 2013 1 Editor’s Notes Sarah D. Phillips, Indiana University It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as editor-in-chief of the AEER for the last five-and- a-half years. My scholarly and personal life has been enriched beyond measure by the opportunity to work with and learn from colleagues in anthropology and related disciplines from all over the world who are deeply committed to understanding the complexity of social forms, social change, and experience in postsocialist Eastern Europe, Russia, the Balkans, and Central Asia from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives. I am grateful to the marvelous previous editors Julie Hemment and Krista Harper for trusting me with the journal editorship, and for their continued support of the journal. The breadth and richness of scholarship contributed by AEER authors to socio-cultural anthropology and related research fields is evidenced in the impressive line-up of special issue sections published since 2008: Cultural Production and Transmission of Ethic Tolerance and Prejudice; Global Socialisms and Postsocialisms; Gender in Postsocialist Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union; Gender Shift in the North of Russia; Health and Care Work; and Memories, Commemorations, and Representations of Chernobyl. The publication of these special issues was possible only thanks to the initiative and commitment of a fine team of guest editors, and I extend thanks to the following: Melanie Arndt, Maryna Bazylevych, Ema Hresanova, Joachim Otto Habeck, Olga Povoroznyuk, Virginie Vaté, Narcis Tulbure, Hilary Pilkington, Anton Popov, and the graduate seminar students who assisted in guest editing the issue on Postsocialist Gender (Vol. 28, No. 1). Articles in the “Open Forum” sections of the journal similarly attest to the range of research approaches, topics, and analyses that are moving the field of postsocialist anthropology forward. From exploring the historico-socio-political meanings of the Lithuanian national dish called zeppelins (Diana Mincyte, Vol. 29, No. 2) to critically examining patriotic youth education in Russia at multi-ethnic summer camps (Giorgio Comai, Vol. 30, No. 1) to untangling the complexities of feminist movements in Ukraine (Jessica Zychowicz, Vol. 29, No. 2 on FEMEN), AEER authors are exploring ethnographically the complex landscapes and nooks and crannies of postsocialist experience. The journal has benefited from numerous transformations during the last few years. First, under the enthusiastic editorship of Neringa Klumbyte, the Book Review section has expanded considerably. Neringa oversaw the review of 42 books during her tenure as book review editor. I am extremely grateful to Neringa for the energetic service she has provided the journal and the field by soliciting and editing so many excellent reviews of anthropologically-oriented books published on the region. Starting with Vol. 31, No. 2 (fall 2013) the book review editor will be Maryna Bazylevych, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Luther College. A specialist in health, health care professions, health system reform, and gender in Ukraine, Anthropology of East Europe Review 31 (1) Spring 2013 2 Maryna is an active member of SOYUZ and the Society for Medical Anthropology, and we welcome her to the AEER editorial team! The second major change has the transformation of AEER from a print journal to an online journal through the Open Journal Systems. The open access format dovetails ideally with the ongoing mission of AEER—to disseminate fresh work on the region in a timely and efficient manner, and to provide broad exposure to current research by both East European and Western scholars. Open access means the journal content is freely available to anyone, anywhere, via the Internet, and the AEER content is now searchable by all kinds of search engines, since OJS uses a standard format that is compatible with Google, Google Scholar, and others. Additionally, OJS serves as a permanent repository of the journal’s archive, providing a permanent preservation mechanism. I am grateful to Jennifer Laherty, Digital Publishing Librarian at Indiana University Libraries for her generous encouragement and assistance in helping AEER “go digital.” I am delighted to introduce the new editor-in-chief of Anthropology of East Europe Review, Andrew Asher. A specialist in citizenship and border studies in Poland, Germany, and the European Union, Andrew received his PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008. During the last several years, Andrew’s work has also focused on scholarly communication and the anthropology of information, and he recently joined Indiana University as the Assessment Librarian at the Herman B. Wells Library. It has been an honor and a pleasure serving the AEER community for the last several years, and I look forward to many more years of collaboration with the journal. I especially look forward to reading each and every future issue!