Caroline Quinlan Editor Southeast Asia Publications cquinlan@niu.edu

In my interview for the Editor position I said I was an artsy-culturally person and so, while not a Southeast Asian specialist, thought I would fit in. . . .

I have a Bachelor’s in English literature, an M.S. in environmental geography, and an M.F.A. in visual art.  My area of interest centers upon the mutual relationship between human beings and the earth.  This has been an overarching theme, whether producing a documentary video on dam removal or creating an earth rite complete with labyrinth and candles for the local community.

I have found much I can relate to – personally and professionally – in the art, culture, community, and resource issues of Southeast Asia, and the work of our scholars in these areas.  Since I began as Editor in 2004, I have learned about the sumptuous temple complex of Pagan in Burma, the great Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the behind-the-scenes complexities of Thai politics, and the brutal era of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  Through our publications, I hope to do my part to make the riches as well as tribulations of this region better known and understood. 

As Editor, I bring a commitment to good writing and its clear, attractive presentation.  Each publication is, to me, an art object, and I feel great pleasure holding one of our fine, newly published books or journals in my hand.  Through marketing efforts, we are striving to make the fruits of our very small press more visible in the world. 

Southeast Asia Publications is at a threshold.  As other academic presses are doing, we must adapt to tighter economic realities, which dictate more selective acquisitions and strategic marketing appraisals before publication, and today’s much more sophisticated printing technologies, which require greater professional design and technical expertise.  Our growing pains are indeed painful at times.  We are evolving almost daily it sometimes seems, in exploring and choosing publication methods and options (print v. web, for example), with the goal of keeping the program viable and flexible, while we provide quality materials that inform the scholarly and the general reader about our region.