Introduction

Abstract

At no time since the age of piracy in the mid-seventeenth to early eighteenth century has the open sea been a more tumultuous place. The high seas are the locus of dangerous migrant crossings, of maritime violence and lawlessness, and of massive environmental destruction. A slew of accidents, from the March 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Indian Ocean to the ferry accident in Bangladesh in February 2015, have led to international concern over safety standards. The ocean itself, with its rising sea levels and massive deposits of debris, embodies the hazards of environmental change. The state of the seas reveals the shortcomings of the project of modernity itself. As historian Maya Jasanoff writes in a 2015 New York Times piece, "The ocean … shows the failure of progress. It is where thousands of refugees drown trying to reach prosperity. It is where slavery and piracy flourish in the face of modern law. It is where industrial chemicals and plastics pollute and destroy ecosystems." This issue of WSQ mobilizes the motif of "at sea" to consider the many ways in which the sea as a locus and metaphor reflects and shapes our contemporary experience. As the articles, poetry, and prose in this issue demonstrate, the sea embodies dystopian despair, violence, and degradation, but also hope, coexistence, and possibility.