Welcome to this special issue of Quaker Studies, centring on John Woolman (1720–1772), a major figure in Quaker work for social equality, which Jon Kershner has edited and introduces below. I am delighted to say that this features five articles representing new and exciting work on Woolman. Many thanks to Jon for accepting the invitation and his hard work on this issue.

Alongside those articles, this issue includes the George Richardson Lecture for 2023, which was given by Rachel Muers, now Chair of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Her lecture explores the use of the biblical images of the seed and the day of small things in early Quaker writing, drawing out the theological significance of these and reflecting on their relationship to Quaker understandings of power and powerlessness.

We are pleased to present a Research Note about Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, which has celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this year. In his reflections about the unit, its Emeritus Professor, Paul Rogers, shares some insights into how it was founded, the challenges it faced, the way it was shaped by connection to the Quaker community and how Peace Studies as a discipline responded to changing world events.

There are four book reviews in this issue. They cover two major edited collections, one on the Quaker movement worldwide and one on Philadelphia, and two major monographs, one on the Mayflower and the context of that voyage and one on twentieth-century British Quakerism.

Quaker Studies will be undergoing its own behind the scenes changes, as we leave Liverpool University Press (LUP) and move to the platform created by Open Library of Humanities (OLH), who have been funding open access to the journal since 2018. The journal will remain diamond open access and there should be little change from the reader’s perspective, but watch out for a change of website address. We thank LUP for everything they have done for the journal. We are also looking forward to a new chapter with OLH.

The back content unavailable at the George Fox University website, those issues published between 2011 and 2023, will continue to be available open access on the OLH website.1 Submissions to the journal will go through the OLH online platform, Janeway – full details will appear on the QSRA website in due course, and you are still welcome to begin by emailing Rhiannon Grant rhiannon. and Rebecca Wynter . You can also contact us with any other enquires about the journal.

Notes

  1. Volumes 1–14, 1996–2010, remain at the George Fox University website, https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies/. ⮭