On Kairos's 30th Anniversary

Christopher Andrews and Erin K. Bahl, Co-Editors

• Introduction
• Kairos's Masthead: A Staff Chronology
• Logging Off with Cheryl Ball
• 30th Anniversary CoverWeb

Introduction

This year we mark the 30-year anniversary of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy amidst a significant editorial transition, as well as national turmoil and global technological upheaval. Much has changed (and will continue to change) since the first issue of Kairos in 1996, as the 10-year and 20-year commemorative issues have documented. Yet even amidst these changes, Kairos's fundamental mission remains the same: to publish high-quality, innovative webtext scholarship that pushes the boundaries of digital rhetoric in service to our disciplinary community, while providing an environment that supports the professional development of authors, team members, and all who support the journal.

To commemorate the journal's 30-year anniversary, we invited the Kairos community to contribute brief responses (3 minutes, 3 images, or 300 words) reflecting on what Kairos means to them and the field of digital rhetoric. Their responses covered a wide range of topics, but we've loosely grouped them here into common themes of technology, innovation, community, scholarship, and mentorship. We've presented these statements in a webtext shell that pays homage to our original CoverWeb design as of Fall 2007, prior to the re-design launch in Fall 2008. (Emphasis on pays homage to! Remember tables for layout?) Additionally, an adapted early draft of this commemorative webtext served as a copyediting test for our new cohort of assistant editors joining us this fall, and we're thrilled to welcome them in shaping the future of the journal together.

This webtext would be unimaginably incomplete without the voice of former editor Cheryl Ball, whose 25-year editorship covers most of the 30-year period commemorated in this issue. Although Cheryl handed over the editorial reins at the end of 2025, she has graciously shared with us her parting reflections (recorded immediately after Computers & Writing 2025) in preparing to step back from the journal and move toward her life's next chapter. Her reflections commemorating the end of an editorial era are a gift to the field, and we are grateful to her for sharing these closing thoughts with our community.

This commemorative webtext is additionally accompanied by a timeline of the journal's history, as well as a complete list of staff members over the years. Kairos wouldn't be possible without its incredible community of editors, reviewers, authors, and readers, and we hope this webtext shares a moment of celebration for all that we have created (and will continue to create) together.

Here's to the next 30 years!