By Alex Rake (The Cascade) – Email
UFV is finally getting its own academic journal. Summit: UFV Undergraduate Journal of the Arts will be an annual publication consisting of essays written by upper-level social science and humanities students. Like UFV’s other publications, the Louden Singletree and PIPE, it is being developed and run by students. Unlike those publications, it will focus on academic work from the College of Arts rather than creative writing and art.
Terrill Smith, co-founder and co-ordinator of Summit, defines the journal as a “student-run publication for arts students at UFV.” There will be two components: the journal itself, and a conference held before its launch where writers will present their work.
“I think it adds to the community at UFV,” Smith says. “There’s nothing like this. Many other universities have academic publications; UFV has none.” Indeed, UBC has its own undergraduate medical and history journals, among many others, as do UVic and SFU. Even Kwantlen has its own undergraduate journal for political science students.
Smith is confident that Summit will offer a much-needed opportunity for undergraduate students. “It’s difficult as an undergrad to get your work published, to be able to present it in front of your peers,” he says. “And it’s good experience for students if they want to get into grad school.”
Other than “some issues with advertising” in terms of social media engagement, development of the journal has so far gone well. “The faculty and the College of Arts have been amazing to us,” Smith says, adding, “It’s been surprisingly smooth sailing considering that we don’t sort of have a template to work off of.”
The tentative conference date for Summit is March 16, with the journal’s publication to follow in mid April. The deadline to submit has been extended to January 13, at 11:59 p.m., and submission guidelines can be found on their Facebook page.
