Statement of Purpose

      The purpose of Frontiers is to publish thought-provoking research articles, insightful essays, and concise book reviews that may provide the profession of study abroad an intellectual charge, document some of the best thinking and innovative programming in the field, create an additional forum for dialogue among colleagues in international education, and ultimately enrich our perspectives and bring greater meaning to our work.

      Frontiers aspires to publish excellent writing that reflects deeply on the critical issues and concerns of study abroad. In particular, this journal is interested in the intellectual development of students in an international and intercultural context. Study abroad offers great promise both to individual students and to institutions committed to international education.

     Frontiers is an interdisciplinary journal. It publishes manuscripts from a wide range of disciplines and encourages approaches to topics that use multiple and mutually supporting forms of analysis. Research on the issue of student learning abroad, for example, might make use of research in anthropology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, and education. Frontiers encourages researchers in particular fields of study to submit manuscripts that relate well to study abroad. Examples of such articles might include: an analysis of the meaning of study abroad for a particular historical figure; an examination of study abroad themes as they appear in a literary work; a business case study analysis of an abroad program; or a research article on the psychological processes that shape study abroad experiences.

     Frontiers has established itself as an important and serious journal for international educators. Founded at Boston University in 1995, it has published five volumes to date. Currently, there are over 400 institutional and individual subscribers in over 20 countries. Frontiers is currently sponsored by a consortium of colleges that includes Arcadia University, Binghamton University, Butler University, Dickinson College, Grinnell College, Harvard University, Macalester College, Middlebury College, Partnership for Global Education of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Union College, Pomona College, Rutgers University, The School for International Training, Southwest Missouri State University, Tufts University, the University of Southern California, Villanova University, Yale University. Frontiers is a strategic partner of the Forum on Education Abroad, sharing and supporting the work and goals of that organization. The journal's editorial offices are at Dickinson College.

     Frontiers publishes one volume per year, alternating between a general, eclectic one and a thematic one that covers a specific topic in-depth. Each volume typically contains research articles, an essay, book reviews, and an update of a particular theme or topic in a field.

     Study abroad has a long cultural past but a short institutional history. The editorial board believes that we have begun and will continue to help define the contours of the frontiers of the field.