The present issue of Ecumenica comes via the journal's new relationship with Penn State University Press. Published independently for more than a decade, Ecumenica has worked to meet an interest in scholarship that attends to the overlap of performance and religion. A number of advantages are attached to independent publishing, not least of which is the personal and flexible relationship that editors can maintain with authors. Some significant disadvantages come with independent publishing. An independent publication presents a number of challenges to a staff composed entirely of volunteer scholars who carry the mountain of responsibilities that come along with professorial employment. In addition to the labor that print production demands—from copyediting to design to digital paste-up to proof-management to labeling, stuffing, sealing, and mailing envelopes—reaching the global body of scholars and artists whose work lies in the intersection of performance and religion tests the resources and expertise of an independent...
