Applications are invited for the posts of contributing editor to The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, an annual periodical published by Brill: https://brill.com/view/journals/ywml/ywml-overview.xml. The journal has appeared since 1930, with only a break during the paper shortages of WWII. Scholars are sought to fill the following subsections of the French and Occitan section that have opened up over the past few years with long-standing editors retiring or standing down:
French Studies: Early Medieval;
French Studies: Late Medieval;
French Studies: Sixteenth Century;
French Studies: Seventeenth Century
French Studies: Eighteenth Century;
French Studies: Nineteenth Century
French Studies: African and Maghreb Literature;
French Studies: Twentieth-Century Literature, 1900 to 1945;
French Studies: 1945-1999;
French Studies: Caribbean;
Occitan: Language and Linguistics.
These subsections may be divided up if necessary (e.g. pre- and post-Romantic era for the 19th century) and we are also open to the idea of new topics (a recent addition is French Speculative Studies). The first submission would begin with volume 87 (covering this current calendar year of 2025 and with a submission date of August 2026). Subsections can be taken on by two or more scholars and our contributing editors range from advanced graduate students to independent scholars and emeriti/ae.
The Year’s Work is collaboratively edited under the direction of the General Editors, Graeme Dunphy and Paul Scott. The volume is divided into broad linguistic sections, each with a section editor. Each section is compiled by a number of contributing editors, each working on a given chronological range or thematic area. The publication language is UK English. The YWMLS comes out annually and provides a survey of the scholarly work done during the preceding year in the fields of the language and literature of French, Latin (Medieval and Neo-Latin), German, the Scandinavian languages, Celtic languages and literature, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and the Slavonic languages and literature. The journal also has a mission to help safeguard minority and endangered languages, reflected in coverage of Occitan, Manx, Yiddish and with plans to have a Native American languages and cultures section. Each survey is not just a listing of books and articles, but is also based upon comment, explication, and critical judgment of the articles and books dealt with. The comment on each article and book is brief (much shorter than usual reviews) but is intended to give apposite guidance on what is covered in the book or article and the value of this, as well as how it relates to other recent work. Longer reviews can be given for interesting and notable articles or books, at the discretion of the contributing editor for that section.
Subscriptions are held by university libraries all over the world. While the role of contributing editor is unpaid, editors regularly receive free review copies of books in their subject area, and, in some cases, also copies of relevant journals. You also receive access to Brill’s publication platform. The role ensures you are up to date with the most recent publications in your field and there is a guaranteed annual publication in a prestigious periodical. Promotion and tenure committees have looked upon this work favorably and the general editors have written letters detailing the roles and responsibilities of contributing editors for university committees such as annual evaluation or funding committees. Individual surveys are listed in the MLA Bibliography and back issues of the YWMLS are available through JSTOR in addition to Brill Books and Journals platform.
If you are interested in the above posts, please do not hesitate to contact me at pascott@ku.edu and I will be happy to discuss the work involved with you (I am editor of the French and Occitan section of the journal as well as being joint general editor).