Within these covers of The Campbellsville Review’s seventh issue, there is a variety of writing that reflects the intellectual interests of the Campbellsville University community. There are articles on history, science, literary commentary, a social issue, and music history; creative works that include a short story and poems, and a book review. Every contributor has a connection to the university. They include faculty, staff, a visiting lecturer, an alumnus, a graduate student, and a professor emeritus. Even the author of the book being reviewed is an alumnus of Campbellsville. Thus, the goal of creating “a living record of the ongoing scholarly life of the university” has been fulfilled.
The content in this edition is slightly different than in the past. The editorial board invited submissions beyond scholarly articles. Beginning with this issue, reviews of books, websites, exhibits, and movies were welcomed in addition to articles, essays, short stories, art, and poems. Upper-class and graduate students and alumni, who teach at other higher educational institutions, were invited to write for The Campbellsville Review. We were successful in recruiting two: Dr. Regan Lookadoo, professor of psychology at Georgetown College, graduated from Campbellsville in 1997, and Sarah Gilbert, a master’s candidate in music under Dr. Wesley Roberts’s mentorship, submitted pieces reflecting their interests. The book review, submitted by Dr. Robert Doty, is of a novel by Elaine Neil Orr, a 1976 Campbellsville College graduate, who teaches at North Carolina State University.
As an added feature, we have included a list of published writing, scholarly and otherwise, by faculty and staff, in the past two years. This is an adaptation of a practice by many academic journals which publish a list of recent scholarship in the field. You will find books, book reviews, short stories, encyclopedia articles, journal articles, graphic art, and conference presentations. This is another way to chronicle the intellectual life of Campbellsville University.
The content is organized with greater intentionality than in the past. There had been cursory organizations of contributions in previous issues whenever the submissions allowed it, such as in Volume 6 when there was an emphasis on the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. In this volume, the contributions have been arranged according to the types of writing. In the Contents page, you will notice that Articles come first followed by Short Stories, Poems, Reviews, Abstracts, Published Works by Faculty and Staff, and Contributors. Within the articles section, the items are organized according to their general topic. The first three articles are historical topics while the next three relate to literature. The remaining three cover single areas—science, social issues, and music.
Plans are being formulated to distribute the Review beyond the borders of the campus. For a start, the past issues have been digitized and placed on Campbellsville University’s website, which can be accessed at this address: https://www.campbellsville.edu/issues. The content in all the previous issues are accessible at this site. Volume seven will be put on the web before it is ever published.
The Editorial Board is exploring other ideas to encourage faculty and staff to research and publish and to make The Campbellsville Review a useful tool for instruction in the University’s curriculum.
May you find something of interest as you read the work of our contributors.
Glen Taul
Editor