In Spring 2022, the longtime editor and creator of RAMBLE and Chair of the World Englishes Committee, Dr. Jeff Howard, left Georgia Tech for a position at Converse University. One of the last conversations I had with Jeff was about his desire that RAMBLE would continue to be published in the future. This issue of RAMBLE would not have come to fruition without Jeff’s years of outreach across the Georgia Tech community and his many hours spent dedicated to developing the World Englishes online presence, which is home to an array of content and resources. RAMBLE and the World Englishes Committee seeks to give voice to an often overlooked presence on our campus and the way in which our multilingual students offer new perspectives to our campus and city. Thus, we hope RAMBLE continues the mission of the inaugural issue: to provide a space that amplifies the creative work of students who are multilingual; non-native English speakers; or speakers of postcolonial varieties of English to celebrate diversity of language and culture.
I am indebted to and grateful for the many contributors to this issue. I particularly would like to thank Krisangi Bhargava, Clare Chung, Ashu Gupta, Mariana Rodriguez, Apurva Pophali, and Jaden Ward for their excellent contributions to the issue. I would also like to thank Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow Suchismita Dutta who agreed to publish a series of poems for the issue which do an amazing job of concluding the issue. In addition, I am thankful for a long-time friend who contributed photos for the issue, Frank H. Andrianarivo.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the members of the World Englishes Committee. Without the committee members’ direct outreached to their students for submissions, this issue would not be possible. As we envision what the World Englishes Committee will look like in the future, I am grateful to Namrata Dey Roy, Sean Dolan, Dipanjan Maitra, Lainie Pomerleau, Micheal Rumore, Kaitlyn Smith, and Franziska Tsufim, along with former members of the committee, for their contributions to the committee and RAMBLE.
Mike Lehman
May 2023