The MLA Executive Council has appointed Adam Potkay, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities at the College of William and Mary, to serve as the next editor of PMLA. His term begins in July 2026 and runs for three years. His scholarly focus is wide-ranging, covering literature and philosophy, Enlightenment and Romanticism, poetry and poetics, rhetoric and pedagogy, affect theory and ethics, the world novel, and more. Potkay’s publications attest to this breadth; he is the author of the books Hope: A Literary History (2022), Wordsworth’s Ethics (2015), The Story of Joy from the Bible to Late Romanticism (2007), The Passion for Happiness: Samuel Johnson and David Hume (2000), An Education on the Delaware: St. Mary’s Hall and Doane Academy, 1837–1999 (2000), and The Fate of Eloquence in the Age of Hume (1994), as well as the coeditor of several influential volumes, from Black Atlantic Writers of the Eighteenth Century (1995) to The Cambridge History of Rhetoric, forthcoming. He previously served as the book review editor of Eighteenth-Century Life and an advisory editor of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Potkay was also a member of the PMLA Editorial Board from 2008 to 2010.
“I’m honored and delighted to assume the editorship of PMLA,” said Potkay. “I look forward to working with the MLA staff, the journal’s editorial board and advisory editors, and the many colleagues who graciously provide expert and timely reviews of submissions.”
“Adam’s extensive editorial work is a testament to his ability to engage with a diverse range of material as well as to his intellectual generosity. That experience and the broad scope of his remarkable scholarship make him an excellent choice for editor of PMLA,” said MLA Executive Director Paula M. Krebs. “We are excited to embark on this next chapter of PMLA with Adam at the helm.”
Potkay will be the tenth editor of PMLA, succeeding Brent Hayes Edwards, who has been editor since July 2021.