VoegelinView Year in Review

2023 has capped off an important year of transformation for VOEGELINVIEW. Our change into a public journal of the arts and humanities, cultural and intellectual criticism, and online education has been completed. This longstanding transformation, which began in limited form back in 2022, has brought with it a new mission, identity, and team at the journal. We achieved our largest yearly readership in the journal’s history, surpassing last year’s previous record, published the most original content submitted to the journal, and expanded the journal’s publishing commitments as well as began supporting young and talented teachers and students as part of the Senior Writing staff.

To mark the transformation of the journal, VOEGELINVIEW welcomed into an inaugural group of Senior Writers: Sophie Belloncle, Sarah Chew, Prerita Govil, and Sarah Reardon. These four talented and intelligent women have brought to the journal (and will bring to the journal) insightful perspectives and reflections into the arts and humanities as teachers, students, and, of course, writers, and these four young women have the distinct honor of being the first Senior Writers in the journal’s history. Two additional Senior Writers were added to our masthead not long afterward: Filip Bakardzhiev and Jesse Russell, both of whom are well-known to the journal. Additionally, two poets-in-residence have been established to help ensure all the work in establishing poetry as a pillar to the journal’s identity continues apace into 2024. Harold Jones, our first published poet in the journal, has been joined by Micah Veillon, a recent graduate of Georgia Tech, as our inaugural poets-in-residence.

These changes have been implemented to ensure the journal’s influence and importance in the ongoing world of change as it relates to the life of the humanities and the secondary mission of the Eric Voegelin Society as an educational organization dedicated to the “fundamental expressions of human civilization in art, literature, science, and politics.” With the rise of digital platforms, online communication and online education, and the continued growth and development of the Internet as a means of education and humanistic networking, VOEGELINVIEW is now positioned to be a leading journal in the digital, and global, remaking of the intellectual life. While we retain a commitment to political philosophy and the life and thought of our namesake, Eric Voegelin, our expansion into every facet of the arts and humanities helps achieve relevance and longevity to the journal. During the year, VOEGELNVIEW began to acquire a reputation as a leading journal of book reviews, cultural commentary and dialogue, and poetry. Some readers and new contributors said that our content was frequently “robust,” “high quality,” “wonderful,” and “enlightening.” To quote other readers, “I have been enjoying it and benefiting from its contents” and “VoegelinView feeds the soul.” To this we give thanks to our readers since we write for them, to help them along in their soulful and intellectual pilgrimages. It cannot be understated that our existence is for our readers: to help them in their intellectual journeys and wrestling and to provide them with the nourishment of the soul that comes from the great conversation with art, literature, music, and more!

Continued changes will be implemented into 2024 to solidify all the hard work that has gone into making this journal an internationally known and widely read publication. In particular, we greatly expanded our readership presence outside of North America, Europe, and Australia. Our growth in readership extended into Brazil, India, and the Philippines, so much so that readers from these countries now represent fourth, fifth, and sixth largest readership by nation (behind the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada and ahead of Australia and Germany which had historically been our fourth and fifth largest readerships). This growth in readership from these countries also resulted in new contributors, especially contributors from Brazil.

As we look forward to 2024, we take the time to pause and look back on all the amazing work that we have accomplished. With contributors and readers spanning the globe, our writings being translated into multiple different languages, and a growing readership base, we remember our top reads of the year and the Editor’s choice for favorite reads.

Most-Read Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Númenor by Paul Krause

Most-Read Essay: Freeing Hegel from Kojève by Khoa Sands

Most-Read Poem: Where Can Roots be Sown? by Micah Veillon

Most-Read Film Review: Barbie: A Confused Postmodern Masterpiece by Tyler Hummel

Top Three Overall Reads:

(1) The Rise and Fall of Númenor by Paul Krause

(2) Beyond the Scientific Revolution: Ian McGilchrist’s “The Matter With Things” by Richard Cocks

(3) Community and Rituals: A Review of Byung-Chul Han’s “The Disappearance of Rituals” by Christopher Garbowski

Essay of the Year, Editor’s Choice: Across the Great Sea: Moby Dick and the Problem of Suffering by Sophia Belloncle

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