Foreword
In Spring Semester 2020, as COVID-19 forced Georgia Tech to shutter and pivot to online learning, the members of the World Englishes Committee were in the midst of their editorial processes for RAMBLE, the long-time brainchild of our then-Committee Chair Dr. Jeff Howard. While it was a time of great uncertainty, we were certain of one thing: our commitment to the publication of our inaugural issue, which we envisioned as a place to amplify the voices of students who are multilingual; non-native English speakers; or speakers of postcolonial varieties of English, as part of our commitment to celebrating the diversity of language and culture.
We remain committed to this vision. With quiet reflection on the hardships of the past year and great hope for what lies ahead, we are pleased to present the second issue of RAMBLE. Our contributors’ cultural backgrounds span the globe, ranging from Malaysian to Guatemalan, Indian to German, and more. Our authors write of the infiniteness of nature and of human smallness; of the comforts of mother tongues and grandmothers’ food; of the beauty of multilingualism but also of the at-times fraught relationship between language and identity, and of systemic issues of language and power. Throughout all these themes, they also celebrate the freedom and solace to be found in writing, and we hope that you, too, can find solace and joy in these pieces. We are incredibly moved by and grateful for our student authors’ generosity in sharing their work with us, and with you.
I would like to thank all the members of the World Englishes committee for their support in seeing this issue to fruition, including assistant editor Dr. Eric Lewis and, especially, Dr. Jeff Howard, for trusting me to see this next issue of the journal through. I am continually inspired by your creativity and hard work, and grateful for your friendship.
Kendra Slayton
April 30, 2021
