Preparatory to Something Else

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Preparatory to Something Else
• Robert Spoo (bio)

It seems strange to be saying farewell to the JJQ so soon after rejoining it as co-editor. It’s even stranger to be saying farewell for the second time. The first was a bit over twenty years ago when I left the University of Tulsa (TU) to embark on a legal career. I had been editor for ten years when I took unpaid leave from TU to finish my law degree at the Yale Law School, where I continued to serve as editor of the JJQ. Then, having decided to accept a judicial clerkship in New York and to practice law, I left TU and the JJQ permanently, or so I thought. In 2008, I returned to TU as a law professor and (later and by courtesy) an English professor. Then, just recently, when after two decades of piloting the JJQ Sean Latham stepped away for other responsibilities at TU, I returned to the JJQ once more, this time as co-editor with my colleague in English here, Jeff Drouin. If all this zigging and zagging confuses you, you’re not alone.

A few weeks ago, I accepted an endowed appointment in the English Department at Princeton University as Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters. I’ll start in Spring 2024, but I suspect our full relocation as a family won’t take place until a bit later. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to continue my engagement with Joyce and other modern authors and to be part of an extremely talented community of teachers and writers. I’ll be working with undergraduates and graduates alongside Maria DiBattista, Josh Kotin, and other brilliant scholars. I’ll also be striving to enhance the study of Irish literature and culture at Princeton and to add to the astonishing efforts of Walt Litz, Clair Wills, Paul Muldoon, Fintan O’Toole, and many others. I earned my Ph.D. in English at Princeton, so this will be a homecoming for me in a deeply satisfying way. The one thing I won’t be doing is teaching law students. I was once introduced at a MLA panel as having received my law degree from the “Princeton Law School,” but in fact Princeton has not had a law school since 1852 (a short-lived program of a few years).

What Princeton does have are extraordinary opportunities for studying and teaching law in the contexts of politics, society, economics, literature, and culture. Many resident faculty, visiting faculty, and fellows pursue law there in its many settings and ramifications; and this multidisciplinary culture will be very congenial for someone like me who has worked at the intersection of law, [End Page 441] copyright, literature, and culture for more than twenty years now. I leave TU with gratitude for so many things that the Law College and the English Department have made possible for me. These include the resources that I had the good fortune to draw upon as the Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law here and the chance to teach a wide range of courses, both strictly legal and richly interdisciplinary, in the law and undergraduate programs.

And I leave the JJQ as co-editor. Editing the JJQ has been much more than a twice-told tale for me; it has meant collaborating with generous talents stretching over more than thirty years, including Jeff Drouin, Sean Latham, Carol Kealiher, Mary O’Toole, and many graduate students. There will be no loss of continuity with my departure. Jeff and Carol will remain in their current roles, and TU will continue its generous support of the journal. With Jeff’s kind permission, I will join the wealth of expertise and experience that are represented by the JJQ’s current board of Advisory Editors. I will play that role proudly from my new perch in New Jersey. What I wrote in a recent issue of the JJQ seems appropriate to repeat here:

Continuity is the word. The JJQ has been continuous—four times a year, with occasional two-quarter mergings in double issues—for six decades, ever since Tom Staley founded it on his kitchen table or in his garage...