Preface and Acknowledgments

demia. The barricades of center and periphery that once marginalized scholars from outside the United States have mostly disappeared. A new awareness of diverse scholarly practices has benefited from technological advances offering instant electronic access to academic journals and intellectual exchanges. Yet, paradoxically, this expansive intellectual milieu is frustrating. Diversity has accelerated the splintering of the academic community into subgroups with little meaningful interaction or rapport. Moreover, accessibility has inundated intellectual precincts to such a degree that it has increased the invisibility of outsiders and newcomers.1 Diversity and improved access have also induced epistemological confusion. An expansive public space has, indeed, encouraged a refreshing airing of the mores and standards of the academic enterprise. At the same time, both the technical and the philosophical extensions of scholarly communication have increased dissoPREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS