From its inception, the Institute for Research in African-American Studies has produced scholarly publications focusing on the various theoretical debates, politics, culture and recent history of black America, Africa and the black diaspora. Our first journal, Race and Reason, was started in the fall semester of 1994. Produced annually for four years, Race and Reason highlighted the various activities of the Institute, and presented contemporary research in the field of African-American Studies. In January 1999, the Institute initiated a far more ambitious publications project. With the collaboration of Westview Press, as well as significant support from Columbia University, the Institute launched SOULS, a quarterly interdisciplinary journal that is dedicated to the mapping of the intellectual contours of the modern black experience: the various ideological debates, politics, culture and recent history of African-American people. In the spirit of W.E.B. DuBois, SOULS (whose title was inspired by DuBois' classic 1903 analysis of black American culture and politics, The Souls of Black Folk) presents creative and challenging interpretations of the major themes and issues currently being discussed by scholars of black America. SOULS brings together intellectuals from both traditional and academe and the black community to engage in a critical dialogue about contemporary problems and challenges facing black America today. The editorial direction of the journal is shaped by founding editor, Manning Marable; and an Editorial Advisory Board that consists of Herbert Aptheker, Dennis Brutus, Johnnetta B. Cole, George Frederickson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sonia Sanchez, Cornel West, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Adina Popescu and Rima Vesely. Each quarterly issue includes feature articles, interviews, book reviews, and an extended "symposium" section drafted by prominent scholars, writers, and leaders on the central theme of each issue.