Join RSAP

Join RSAP by ordering a subscription to the journal, American Periodicals.

American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography

Visit the journal’s website for info about current and past issues, submissions, and more:

amperiodicals.org

American Periodicals, the official publication of the Research Society for American Periodicals, is devoted exclusively to scholarship and criticism relating to American magazines and newspapers of all periods. It includes essays, notes, reviews, bibliographies, and histories on all aspects of American periodicals, from the earliest 18th-century magazines to 21st-century ‘zines and e-journals.

American Periodicals invites scholarly essays treating any aspect of American periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and other periodical publications) from any historical period. Submissions that treat topics such as editorial policy, financing, production, readership, design, illustration, and circulation of specific periodicals are welcome, as are those that explore the position of American periodicals within the broader culture. In particular, we welcome articles that, like the periodicals themselves, cross the boundaries of several disciplines and explore the complex ways that periodicals have shaped, and have been shaped by, American culture. Essays should be limited to 7500 words, inclusive of notes.

Subscription/membership rates:
Student (print or online) – $38.00/year
Individual (print or online) – $52.00/year
Institutional (print) – $155.00/year

Editorial Team

Editor
Sarah H. Salter, Emory University

Review Editors
Marina Bilbija, Wesleyan University
Brian Sweeney, The College of Saint Rose

Advisory Editors

Ayendy Bonifacio, The University of Toledo
Eurie Dahn, The College of Saint Rose
Jacqueline Emery, SUNY Old Westbury
Benjamin Fagan, Auburn University
Brooks E. Hefner, James Madison University
Alisha Knight, Washington College
Vanessa Meikle Schulman, George Mason University
Janice Simon, University of Georgia
Courtney Weikle-Mills, University of Pittsburgh
Andreá N. Williams, The Ohio State University
Jewon Woo, Lorain County Community College


About RSAP

The Research Society for American Periodicals is an interdisciplinary organization of scholars interested in American magazines and newspapers. Founded in 1991, the organization was established to offer scholars in American literature and culture, and all interested persons, an opportunity to share in the study and appreciation of American periodicals. Through its annual meetings, scholarly panels, special symposia, miscellaneous publications, and this website, RSAP provides a medium of communication among interested scholars and expands the possibilities of scholarly and critical study of an important part of American literary and cultural history.

RSAP is a non-profit organization and no part of its revenues shall inure to the benefit of its members.

Activities of the Research Society for American Periodicals include:

  • Publishing the scholarly journal American Periodicals
  • Hosting a frequently-updated page of resources on American periodicals
  • Sponsoring panels at the annual meeting of the American Literature Association
  • Awarding two prizes to scholars publishing in the field of American periodicals
  • Maintaining a free moderated discussion list

Annual Meetings at ALA

RSAP meets each year at the annual conference of the American Literature Association. The ALA conference meets in late May and alternates between sites on the west and east coasts. See below for information about this year’s panels.

Note: RSAP will hold its annual gathering online on May 19-20, 2022. For info, registration, and details, please see our page on RSAP 2022 Online. All are welcome to attend, and there is no cost to register or participate.

RSAP Online Program – May 19-20, 2022


RSAP Early Career Research Grants

The Research Society for American Periodicals (RSAP) invites applications for grants of between $250 and $1,000 to enhance research activities in American periodicals. These grants are intended for early career scholars – graduate students and those who have received their doctorate within the last five years – and are open to those who are “researching in place” in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. The funds may be used in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: a subscription to an online database or resource; reproduction or copyright/use fees for brick-and-mortar archival materials or digital database materials; travel to archives; childcare to enable travel or a concentrated period of research/writing; computer software.

The deadline for applications has passed. Winners of the RSAP ECR Grants can be viewed on this page.


Prizes

RSAP gives biannual awards of $1000 in recognition of the best monograph or journal article on American periodicals. The competition alternates between the book and article categories.

Prizes are chosen by a peer review of three scholars chosen by the RSAP Advisory Board. Winners and honorable mentions for both prize competitions are invited to present their work at the annual ALA meeting.


Browse the full list of past winners & honorable mentions.

Book Prize Winners

  • 2021-2022 – Jordan E. Taylor and Eurie Dahn
  • 2019-2020 – Victoria Bazin
  • 2017-2018 – Kirsten MacLeod
  • 2015-2016 – Eric Gardner
  • 2013-2014 – Tim Lanzendörfer
  • 2011-2012 Jared Gardner

Article Prize Winners

  • 2022 – Scott Zukowski and Jordan E. Taylor
  • 2020 – Jarvis McInnis
  • 2018 – Chris La Casse and Josh Schneiderman
  • 2017 – Josh Schneiderman
  • 2016 – Montse Feu
  • 2013 – Ryan Cordell
  • 2012 – James Berkey
  • 2011 – Benjamin Fagan
  • 2010 – Sari Edelstein
  • 2009 – Amanda Gailey

RSAP-L

RSAP-L is a moderated discussion list, open to all who wish to join in a scholarly exchange on American periodicals.

Join RSAP-L: https://list.indiana.edu/sympa/subscribe/rsap-l

Submit messages rsap-l [at] list.indiana.edu (must be a subscriber)

The RSAP-L discussion list provides a forum for all of the innovative investigation of American periodicals underway today. Here, scholars working in the area continue the conversations that go on in conference hallways; exchange information, notices, and calls for papers; put together panels, post queries, and let one another know about new books in the field. The list also encourages broad-ranging conversations about the divergent uses of periodicals in literary and historical studies, classroom use of periodicals, issues of canonicity and popularity in periodicals, periodicals’ role in consumer culture, and anything else related to periodical research.

We construe “periodicals” broadly, to include magazines, newspapers, special editions, gift annuals, amateur press periodicals, children’s magazines, religious periodicals, periodicals in languages other than English, house organs, mimeographed newsletters, small press periodicals, zines, etc., and of course extend our interests to magazinists and journalists, people who wrote or illustrated even occasionally for the medium, and their organizations. We cover American periodicals from their origin into the present; geographically, we range through the Americas.


About RSAP

View the RSAP Constitution

Officers

See more details about the RSAP officers on the Officers page.

  • President: James Berkey, Penn State Brandywine (2023-2025)
  • Vice President/President-Elect: Tim Lanzendörfer, Goethe University, Frankfurt (2023-2025)
  • Treasurer: Montserrat Feu-Lopez, Sam Houston State University (2023-2025)
  • Secretary: Agatha Beins, Texas Woman’s University (2023-2025)

Advisory Board

  • Derrick Spires, Cornell University (2021-2024, second term)
  • Nicolás Kanellos, University of Houston (2022-2025, first term)
  • Joshua Ortiz Baco, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2022-2025, first term)
  • Amy Sopcak-Joseph, Wilkes University (2022-2025, first term)
  • Kirsten MacLeod, Newcastle University (2023-2026, second term)
  • Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, University of Washington (2023-2026, first term)
  • Cynthia Patterson, University of South Florida (2023-2026, first term)
  • Jim Casey, Penn State (2023-2025; ex-officio)
  • Sarah Salter, Emory University (ongoing, ex-officio)

Resources for American Periodicals Scholars

Add your work to our open list of
American Periodicals Digital Projects & Resources!
bit.ly/rsap-list

And don’t forget to visit the fuller site: Resources for American Periodicals Scholars

An extensive collection of resources was first created by Ellen Gruber Garvey (New Jersey City University), and the current collection of resources would not have been possible without her continued support. Matt Lavin (University of Pittsburgh) built the WordPress functionality for the site. Jean Lee Cole (Loyola University of Maryland), Amanda Gailey (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), and Michelle Tiedje (PhD student in History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln) contributed to resource development, design, copy editing, and site debugging for this project.

Contents

Colonial Era/Early National(-1820)

Antebellum (1820-1860)

Civil War Through Progressive Era (1860-1922)

Modern Period To Present (1922-)

Digitized Collections – Nonscholarly

Secondary And Other Non-Archival Sources


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