Preface AAA continues with a new editorial team One year ago, the founding editor of AAA, Bernhard Kettemann, announced in the preface of Vol. 47 (1) that after 47 years of leading the journal, he will pass on the baton to a new team of editors. In the increasingly diversifying domain of English studies and the fast-paced world of academic publishing in the field, the last two decades have seen a rapid increase in journals, book series and in the sheer volume of publications in English studies. Throughout these developments, Bernhard has remained a rare and exceptional editor who has guided the journal from its foundation up to the present volume. The period of his editorship is truly outstanding in the field, as is his ambition to propel the journal forward, which has never wavered throughout all the years. We have had the opportunity to ask Bernhard some questions about his editorship of the journal and the current issue will commence with this conversation, titled “Every volume was a highlight”. In view of his extraordinary achievement, the new editorial team would like to thank Bernhard for his devotion and dedication to the journal, and we feel both honoured and humbled to be able to take over the editorship from him. To continue the tradition of AAA as a journal that caters for the whole field of English studies, we have decided to split the editorship thematically along the broad areas of linguistics (Alexander Onysko), literature (Ulla Ratheiser), culture (Ulla Ratheiser and Werner Delanoy), and language education (Werner Delanoy). We are also thankful to the longserving members of the editorial board, Alwin Fill, Walter Grünzweig, Walter Hölbling, Allan James, Andreas Mahler, Christian Mair, Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf and Werner Wolf, for continuing to support the journal. We would also like to extend our special thanks to Eva Triebl, who has been in charge of copyediting the issues of the journal for many years and will continue to do so with the new editorial team. Similarly, Georg Marko has been directly involved in both copyediting and the handling of book reviews. We are very happy that he joins AAA now as a member of the editorial board. The last year, up to the publication of Vol. 48, issue 1, served the new editorial team to prepare the ground for the change of editorship so that AAA will continue its tradition as a dedicated journal covering the wide range of English studies. In addition, we implemented a few changes concerning the editorial contents and editorial board of the journal. We have updated the information provided on the journal website (https: / / elibrary.narr.digital/ journal/ aaa), have introduced an additional English name that maintains the journal’s signature abbreviation (AAA), Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies, and have invited more colleagues in the field Preface 6 to join the editorial board. We would like to thank all the scholars who have agreed to become new members of the board (alphabetically ordered): Sibylle Baumbach, Marcus Callies, Marta Degani, Sarah Herbe, Julia Hüttner, Cornelia Klecker, Ursula Kluwick, Benjamin Kremmel, Frauke Matz, Simone Pfenninger, Peter Siemund, Ute Smit, Laurenz Volkmann, Max von Blanckenburg, Werner Wolf, and Libe García Zarranz. We would also like to express our gratitude to the publishing house Narr Francke Attempto for having given continuous and reinvigorated support to the journal during this transition period, for their excellent cooperation and their steadfast dedication to continue publishing the journal at the highest quality of production, both as print and e-copy. The first volume of the new editorship is inaugurated with a special issue. Vol. 48 issue 1 aims at showcasing future perspectives of research in the three main areas of English studies represented in the journal: linguistics, literature/ culture and language education. In each of the three main strands, leading scholars were invited to share their insights on current topics that are of central concern to the field. In the first contribution in the area of linguistics, Christian Mair reflects on how an understanding of world Englishes, and particularly the role of English as a global language, could be enriched by insights from disciplines beyond linguistics. He puts forward and exemplifies an approach that takes heed of the political economy of language learning and language planning in light of English as a lingua franca. In “Current perspectives on learner corpus research”, Marcus Callies discusses how the relatively young field of learner corpus research has evolved dynamically during the last three decades. He also highlights some of the challenges faced by this type of research and sees a change in the norms of English language teaching away from monolithic conceptions of standard English. Section 2 on Literature and Culture reflects on the relation between historico-political events and literary texts, and which relevance this interaction acquires for present-day dealings with the past. Firstly, Christoph Singer offers a reading of Winsome Pinnock’s play Rockets and Blue Lights (2020) against the backdrop of past and current engagements with the Zong massacre of 1781, during which 133 enslaved men, women and children were killed. By using the lens of hauntology, Singer shows how the play dismantles dominant historiographies of the slave trade and, by relying on trans-temporal plotlines, manages to draw our attention to the blind spots in Britain’s dealings with its colonial past. Secondly, in “Secrets, Leaks and the Novel: Writers, British Intelligence and the Public Sphere after World War Two”, Jago Morrison and Alan Burton investigate the interrelation between spy fiction and actual British Secret Service work in the post WWII era. The authors demonstrate how spy fiction has been employed by insiders to British intelligence to reveal the ins and outs, failings and successes of secret service operations. While other channels have been barred mostly for legal reasons, it is the spy novel, as Morrison and Burton Preface 7 argue, that has provided an authentic representation of British intelligence work during the second half of the 20 th century up to the present day. The section on Language Education features two articles focused on English language and literature teaching in the digital age. Daniel Becker and Frauke Matz show how practices like game playing and non-professional digital text-creation necessitate new theories for literature teaching and learning. These new theories go beyond Reader Response Criticism, the still dominant approach in literature pedagogy, by including new notions of authorship, digital literary practices like instapoetry and twitterature, and literary texts written by language learners. Thomas Strasser’s article takes a bird’s eye perspective on currently available digital tools that pose new challenges to English language education. He focuses particularly on how language teachers can creatively engage with Artificial Intelligence technologies. The current issue closes with two book reviews on recent publications in the field of literature and culture. We would like to wish the readers an engaging and stimulating time with the current issue and with those yet to come. Alexander Onysko, Ulla Ratheiser, and Werner Delanoy