At the beginning of my Junior year, I answered an application sent out by the history department for positions on the executive board of The Historical Review because I wanted to find a creative outlet that complemented the academic work I was doing in my major. At this point in my college career, I’d been declared as a History and Anthropology major for almost a full year but I felt very disconnected from the history community at UW. Classes during the COVID years left me feeling like I couldn’t get to know anyone in my online classes and I spent most of my time outside of classes focusing on commitments that didn’t relate to my academic interests. As I progressed through my major, though, I wanted to find other ways to channel my interest in history and meet others with similar interests. Although I’d done a significant amount of writing during my time studying history, the idea of an undergraduate historical journal was unfamiliar to me. The papers that I wrote as a student and the published research that I read seemed disconnected from one another, and I was impressed to learn about the work done by The Historical Review and 

its writers. The role of layout editor stood out to me because I’ve always enjoyed the artistic side of projects and I thought it would be a good place for me to apply my organizational skills. I enjoyed getting to have hands-on interaction with many aspects of The Historical Review and seeing the work my teammates have done while formatting them into the journal’s layout. Getting to know the other members of the team at our general meetings was always a fun and fulfilling experience and one I hope to replicate in my managerial position next year. Spending time together in the history reading room, and playing ice breakers helped me feel more connected to the history community at UW and is an environment I wish I’d been a part of earlier in my time at this school. 

I was grateful to get to work with Sierra Muehlbauer and Lillian Williamson, our 2022-23 Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor, and want to thank them for all the guidance they provided and the hard work they put into the club. Having the group run by two people who are so clearly passionate about the publication and the field of history was greatly influential on its atmosphere. I can only hope to achieve the welcoming attitude and level of commitment that they brought to The Historical Review this year. As next year’s Managing Editor I wanted to further contribute to the existing success of The Historical Review by helping implement new ideas to support our growth as a publication. Hello Historical Review, Daddy’s here. This publication has played an instrumental part in my connection to this wonderful community of historians, and I’m excited to work with our new Editor-in-Chief, Makenna Page, to make sure our future volumes will be a success.

Thank you to Sierra and Lillian, Makenna, all of the members of our editing and executive boards, and the readers of this year’s edition of The Historical Review!

Asa Madarang