The University of California Press Journals division announced the forthcoming publication of Boom: A Journal of California, a new peer-reviewed, quarterly journal dedicated to social, political, and cultural issues in the Golden State.

Edited by Carolyn de la Peña, Associate Professor of American Studies at UC Davis and Director of the Davis Humanities Institute, and Louis Warren, UC Davis’ W. Turrentine Jackson Professor of Western U.S. History, Boom will bring in-depth intellectual study of California to a wide audience, and inspire discussion about California’s past, present, and future. Each issue will feature thoughtful and provocative articles by a range of contributors, from researchers and scholars to writers and photographers.

Boom breaks new ground in California studies, and has global relevance: “One in eight residents of the U.S. lives in California, and the state has become an unprecedented cultural, economic, and political force in the U.S. and abroad. And yet, no journal has explored the origins and meaning of today’s California in an interdisciplinary and intellectual way. With Boom, we aim to fix that,” said Warren.

The new journal also addresses a need for a greater understanding of California: “To truly grapple with the crisis facing California, we have to gather new knowledge about who we are, how we got here, and what common ground can be built for the future. By featuring the work of researchers in multiple fields and combining that with community voices, we believe Boom will uncover fresh perspectives on the state we’re in,” de la Peña said.

Boom‘s debut issue will appear in February 2011.

Boom is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “We are deeply grateful to the Mellon Foundation for fostering scholarship in California Studies at this critical moment,” said University of California Press Director Lynne Withey.

Read the press release announcing the new UC Press journal Boom: A Journal of California.

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