Rice News has a story about my new role as editor of the Journal of Southern History (as of January 1). Here’s a snippet:

McDaniel, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities, said he sees the editorship as an extension of Rice’s research mission and the journal’s long-standing dedication to truth seeking.

“I also believe that in our current moment, when solid research is often being drowned out in the public sphere by the noise of A.I. slop and hallucination or worse, the mission of scholarly research journals to seek the truth wherever it may lead, and with a scrupulous attention to evidence and fact, has never been more important,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said he views the coming chapter as an opportunity to deepen that commitment to evidence-based scholarship at a time when careful historical work is increasingly essential.

“For scholars in the humanities, professional journals like this one are as vital to the university’s research mission as laboratories in the sciences,” McDaniel said. “The rewards are immense, and I believe they contribute directly to Rice’s commitment to bettering our world.”