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ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The Latchkey: A Journal of New Woman Studies is the first journal devoted to the study of the figure of the New Woman. The first issue was launched in Spring 2009 with the aim of publishing original and significant scholarship by established and emerging academics on the New Woman as well as early feminist writers, women’s journalism, the suffrage movement, women’s education and professional advancement, women as artists and actors, and queer women. While still a very new journal, The Latchkey has received the kind support of the Victorian/nineteenth century studies community, with Lyn Pykett noting in 2011 that the journal was part of a shift such that “we now no longer see fin de siècle writing as dominated by male aesthetes and decadents. Nor do we see the fin de siècle as the fag end of the Victorian age, or simply as ‘an age of transition’” (“Re-Viewing Women Writers of Fin de Siècle” in A. Gavin and C. de la L. Oulton, Writing Women of the Fin de Siècle, 24).

The Latchkey’s founding editor, Dr. Petra Dierkes-Thrun, from the very beginning gave the journal its distinctive focus, seeking out articles not only on the British New Woman, but the New Woman as a global cultural phenomenon. To date we have had articles ranging from the German Neue Frau to Canadian Nursing fiction, and we plan to continue exploring the influence of the New Woman across countries and across disciplines. Petra has gone on to pursue her own research in European and Transantlantic Fin de Siècle studies and to become Stanford University’s Assistant Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. We wish her well in her future career.

In Issue VII, the journal moved to a new website. While previously under the umbrella of the Oscholars group, under the general editorship of David Rose, in 2015 it was felt by all to have successfully established its own identity. Throughout its short life, the journal’s consistency and its distinctive look has been maintained by our continuing association with Steven Halliwell and The Rivendale Press. Steven, our founding webmaster, continues to devote his time and care to the journal and to make its work possible.