Kairos: Past, Present and Future(s)

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June 1997: Honolulu, Hawaii
(Doherty's Thread)

Fast-forward ...

At C&W 13, just two years after the ill-fated D'Artagnan group first formed, two members of the Kairos editorial board who would later marry each other (John Barber and Dene Grigar) took off for lunch with two members of the Kairos editorial staff who would later marry each other (Sandye Thompson and myself).

At one point in the discussion, Grigar noted that the journal seemed to be leaning toward more "regular features," even at times utilizing templates or specific guidelines, and wondered if that might not quite be true to the original conception of the publication, or even to the original meaning of the word "Kairos." Barber added, clearly joking but with a point to be made, "Maybe you should rename the journal Stasis."

When I repeated Barber's gentle jab at an ensuing panel at the conference, Cindy Selfe nearly fell off her chair laughing. And it is a good line. But to that point, it had been the publication of Kairos 2.1 earlier that year which signaled for me the success of the publication. It had nothing to do with the content or design, but with the timeframe.

We had made it a full year — true, only Siering, Salvo, Teague, and I remained from the original staff, and the editorial board had turned over by more than 50%. But the timeliness of the journal — the kairos of Kairos — was more established, more accepted. I began to receive e-mail from department chairs who wanted to know a little more about this "Kairos thing" appearing on vitae and in tenure portfolios.

Is that contradictory? A publication named for the concept of radical occasionality and reinvention of the present occasion settling into an established role? As with the original "Morphing Editors" thread, that particular question leads only to more open-ended questions.

Next — November 2001: Dallas, Texas

 
Kairos Will Have Been ...
(Salvo's Story)

Kairos logo circa 2002 ... and beyond?