As a faculty member involved with civic engagement for twenty years, I think that academic research and the greater good are not only compatible but inseparable. I see the eJournal of Public Affairs as the locus where quality research in the civic engagement space will come from a variety of disciplinary and scholarly approaches. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to set the tone for this new era of the eJournal and I trust you will find that the contributions we are including here will set the bar high. 

The time in which this important scholarly work has been produced could be no more poignant. 2024 is a significant year, perhaps pivotal, for American democracy and that is not something I say lightly. A confluence of forces, from decreasing trust in government and social institutions, the increasing use of mis- and dis-information on the electorate with a recent rise in use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to legitimize such falsehoods, manipulation of electoral district composition, ideological and policy polarization, voter suppression, increasing use and acceptance of violence as a political tool, and decreasing levels of social capital and civic engagement have combined to pose the question, “Is American democracy under threat?”