REVIEW OF DISABILITY STUDIES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Volume 15, Issue 2

Editorial
Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye
Megan A. Conway, PhD
Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal Editor-In-Chief
Hawaii, United States

      In the summer of 2001 I was a new faculty member at the Center on Disability Studies 
(CDS), University of Hawaii, literally fresh off the boat from Berkeley, California and still 
calling myself "Dr. Conway" with awe and pride after years of pursuing my doctorate-or-die. 
I was chipper, passionate and dumb. I landed in Hawai?i as all Haoles do with preconceived 
and completely wrong ideas about life in Paradise and an irrational fear of giant cockroaches. 
And as a disabled white woman from the land of Crip Freedom and Pride, I was also in for an 
additional shock when confronted by prejudice and inaccessibility. Complaining about my 
rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act got me nothing but mute stares, mulish put 
offs and a muttered "show some Aloha." You think?

      I came onboard CDS to coordinate a federal grant focused on transition, but my 
somewhat (at the time) hidden passion was Disability Studies. I had nabbed the job at CDS 
partly via a connection between my Berkeley mentor Susan O'Hara and longtime Disability 
Studies Quarterly (DSQ) Editor David Pfeiffer, who was settling into semi-retirement in 
Hawaii and was pleased to have me increase the number of faculty with disabilities at CDS 
from 1 to 2. We were soon joined by fellow Cripstar Steven Brown, and felt ourselves almost 
overrepresented at our center then comprised of 100 faculty and staff.

      By 2003 David had been forced (by his account) to relinquish his editorship of DSQ 
and had decided to start a new journal, the Review of Disability Studies: An International 
Journal, with me and Steve as Assistant Editors. I was excited by the prospect of learning 
about academic publishing and the wild world of Disability Studies under David's tutelage. 
And then David died. I did not know David well personally, just had a great deal of respect 
for him professionally, but I do remember watching the canoes paddle out with his ashes on 
board thinking, quite selfishly, "now what"?

       Now what was the inaugural issue of RDS, published in December of 2004, 
conceived of and assembled by David and executed with great enthusiasm and limited 
experience by Steve and me. It was a gargantium issue, with 27 articles, essays, creative 
works, book reviews and notes from the field. Contributors (in addition to the three noble 
editors) included legends and novices, the now living and the now passed: Mark Sherry, 
Reiko Hyashi & Mariko Kimura, Mary Fleming & William Ross, Adam Corrico & Leonard 
Jason, Jennifer Coles, Janice Dewey & Megan OHare, David Connor, Beth Omansky, Alex 
Lubet , Steven Gilson & Elizabeth DePoy, Mark Medoff, Jillian Weise, Tanis Doe, Ottmar 
Paul, Jean Johnson and Steven Taylor. I really have no idea how or why we put together such 
a big baby, but it was a good baby and the beginning of a creative project that has sustained 
me through professional hardships and joys for the past 15 years.

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      As you may have guessed by now, I am leading up to a goodbye. After 18 years with 
the University of Hawaii and 15 years in various editorial roles with RDS culminating with 
Editor-In-Chief, I am heading back to California and handing over the reins of RDS to 
someone new. The baby is now a teenager and ready to try new things. I know that our 
wonderful Editorial Board, Review Board, Editorial Assistant, and new leadership will keep a 
steady course and maintain RDS' relevance in the ever growing field of Disability Studies. I 
leave the particulars of the "now what" for the new Editor.

      If you have made it this far in my monologue about the humanization of an academic 
journal, you might be curious to know what I am doing next. I am leaving academia for a bit, 
or forever, time will tell, to work in the "real world". Sometimes we have to move back to 
move forward. Sometimes we have to say goodbye to say hello.
      
Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye by Megan A. Conway is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at 
https://rdsjournal.org. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 
https://www.rds.hawaii.edu.
      
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