By Nadine Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 7, 2012
The Association of History Students (AHS) is calling for history students to submit their research to the first annual edition of The Acropolis, a student-run journal.
Jordan Williams, who has had ample experience in editing while working on UFV’s Journal of Historical Biography, is the student heading up the editorial board of The Acropolis.
Williams is an upper-level representative for the AHS, and he says he hopes the “student-led and student content-driven” journal will “emulate a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.”
The editorial board is composed of students recommended by History Department faculty.
“Basically,” Williams explains, “when someone submits an article we give it a couple of read-throughs; if it’s publishable, we will get a faculty member to vet it for accuracy.”
After the fact-checking, the editors will work with the writer “to get the paper to a point where both the author and the editors are happy with it.”
This editing is a process that involves back-and-forth communication between writers and the board, Williams explains.
There are no specifications for the content of submissions.
“As long as it’s original research and hasn’t been published elsewhere, and it meets a certain standard of quality, we’ll publish it,” Williams says. In general, the article’s length should be limited to a maximum of 25 pages, but the board will consider longer papers for publication.
“Most of [the contributions] will come from class assignments that people are proud of and that faculty have encouraged them to submit,” Williams says.
Williams is a fourth-year student, working towards graduating with a history major and extended minor in English. He’s looking to study history at the graduate level, and would suggest to those doing the same to consider submitting their work to The Acropolis.
“If people are considering pursuing history at a graduate level, this would good on a resume,” he says. “For career-minded students this is something they should definitely think about.”
Williams plans to write for other scholarly journals once he has graduated, and he hopes eventually to teach history at the university level.
According to Williams, The Acropolis is still very much in the development stage.
“We’re still working on the framework,” he explains. “We’re making a website and are actually looking for a logo if someone wanted to create one.”
Several history professors have been vital to the development of The Acropolis; Alisa Webb and Lisa Pazolli have both contributed to its creation and development. Williams also cites his experience working with Barbara Messimore on the Journal of Historical Bibliography as “a huge help.”
“I’m really grateful to her for the opportunity,” he says. “It gave me some editing experience and from there I thought it would be cool to try doing it at a student level.”
The deadline for submissions is November 30. For more information visit their website (under construction), or email theacropolis@ufv.ca.
