| MISSION |
We aim to be a clearing house for the freshest, most compelling, most curious ideas about race - indeed, about what it means to be human - today," says Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities at Harvard University, and one of Transition's editors. "There is no party line." With his longtime friend and collaborator, Professor of Afro-American Studies and of Philosophy Kwame Anthony Appiah, Gates has made Transition a venue for unusual, and sometimes contentious, writing on ethnicity and identity. The official publication of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, Transition—like Afro-American Studies itself—has become a fixture on the intellectual landscape of America.
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Transition was founded in 1961 in Uganda by the late Rajat Neogy and quickly established itself as a leading forum for intellectual debate. This series carries on a tradition of the original's tough-minded, far-reaching criticism, both cultural and political.
Quotes from the issue:
“As if to comment on the contrasting political spirits of 1957 and 2007 Ghana—the former strident, the latter conciliatory—one prominent image juxtaposed Nkrumah’s rallying cry of Forward Ever, Backward Never! with Kufuor’s tentative assurance that Ghana was slowly but surely moving toward its development goals.”
—Emmanuel Akyempong and Ama de-Graft Aikins
“Some tried to seek refuge behind cars, some were caught almost instantly, others managed to reach their homes, but three—Bouna Traoré, Zyed Benna, and Muhittin Altun—took the ill-fated option to run into the nearby power substation to escape from the police.”
—Maboula Soumahoro
“The image of the blissful domestic unit of white patriarchal order, rent from the world by such a violent and specific event, gripped the imagination of the white nation and especially the dominant community of Afrikaners in South Africa. In no time, it became a metaphor for the predicament of Afrikanerdom and white rule.”
—Rosalind C. Morris
“If we’re looking at the globalization of African American culture, if we understand why everyone in the world is doing hip hop—and it’s not just because Coke and Nike tell them to—there’s something about this vernacular culture which does exactly what Du Bois imagined it would do.”
—Paul Gilroy, interviewed by Tommie Shelby
“Within this broad, fraught terrain of history, race, science, and imagination, Eisner’s very personal, artistic quest—not only the product but also the act of painting—became a part of the negotiation of identity and the creation of images of Africans as equal members of humanity.”
—Hudita Nura Mustafa
- We are delighted to report that two pieces published in Transition 97 (2007) have received awards for excellence and will be reprinted in major anthologies. Jamal Mahjoub's “Salamanca” (pp. 138-147) has been selected for inclusion in Best American Essays (2008), and Emily Raboteau’s “Searching for Zion” (pp. 52-87) has been selected for inclusion in Best American Nonrequired Reading (2008). Congratulations to Jamal and Emily! Subscribe to award-winning Transition magazine today!
- We are pleased to announce that Transition: An International Review is now published by Indiana University Press. Beginning with the first issue in 2008, the magazine will appear three times per year in a 176-page format. In addition to fiction, creative nonfiction, narrative journalism, art and cultural criticism, political commentary, book reviews, poetry, and interviews, we also hope to include in future issues letters to the editors in response to the ideas published here. We invite our readers to participate in the dialogues initiated by our authors by sending their letters to: The Editors, Transition magazine, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, 104 Mount Auburn Street 3R, Cambridge, MA 02138; or via email: <transition@fas.harvard.edu>.