Anthropology Magazine: An Interdisciplinary Forum for Teaching and Learning Cultural Critique[]
Anthropology's rich ethnographic record and methods give this field of study an ethical responsibility to promote what Renato Rosaldo has called “cultural citizenship.” That means teaching a fundamental habit of critical inquiry into our social surroundings through both political engagement and open-minded dialogue.
Anthropology Magazine (AM) is the first online resource devoted to this mission, and responds to a widely recognize need for more pedagogically-oriented anthropological writing. We invite submissions that explore anthropological topics in an interesting, accessible way through any related field of study, including archaeology, classics, communication studies, comparative literature, cultural anthropology, cultural studies, ethics, ethnomusicology, folklore, historiography, performance studies, public affairs, rhetoric, social/cross-cultural psychology, sociolinguistics, and sociology.
AM does not address itself primarily to the community of research professionals, and so articles that propose new theoretical directions or critiques of current theory ought generally to be directed toward conventional academic Magazines, of which there are PLENTY.
Publishing in AM demonstrates your commitment to undergraduate and public education. Work published here is under the GFDL. In other words, you permit your article to be freely copied, distributed, and incorporated into derivative works.
We especially encourage individual and collaborative student class projects, which undergo the same peer review process and are held to the same standards as other submissions.
Our Mission[]
- To promote and model an ethic of cultural citizenship.
- To provide a public forum in which undergraduate students can share their work and learn fundamental skills of scholarship, such as constructive criticism and writing for a critical audience.
- To communicate the insights of social and cultural theory to a broad public and provide resources that help students work with interdisciplinary theories such as deconstruction, critical theory, etc.
- To facilitate collaboration among students, professionals, and life-long learners from different institutions.
It’s a WikiMagazine[]
Wiki is a collaborative, community-based model for knowledge production on the Web. It replaces the traditional top-down editorial system with a community that shares responsibility for producing and maintaining the quality of work, with suitable safeguards. See Wikipedia for the most advanced example.
- The “wiki publishing” model allows anyone in the AM community (hereafter “the community”) to contribute to existing published articles or submit new ones.
- Anyone with an e-mail address can join the community, and anyone who is reading this can contribute to AM.
- You as the author choose whether or not to invite co-authorship and to allow community members or the public to enhance your work.
- At least two community members serve as peer reviewers for each article.
- Members of the community review the peer reviewers, providing quality control.
- You can reject alterations others make if they aren’t helpful.
- The community weeds out unqualified contributors, spammers, and vandals.
- A complete history of changes to your work is maintained, allowing readers to see your work in its original form as well as what others have added to it.
- You as the author don’t have to be the final word: others will contribute their expertise to your project!
Examples of Submission types[]
- Illustrations of theoretical concepts or demonstrations of research practices such as ethnography. The goal of an illustration differs somewhat from an argument, since the texts seeks to understand rather than create theory as its first priority.
- commentaries on classic works of theory or biographical notes about key researchers
- Annotated bibliographies of works that deal with socio-cultural theory in a way readable by the general public.
- Summary articles that “translate” abstract concepts (dialectics, dialogism, simulacra, deconstruction, any flavor of Deleuze, etc.) into accessible, sensible terms with examples.
- Book reviews that discuss the relevance of recent publications to students, the public, and various disciplines.
- Any material that models sociological inquiry as a way of life.
Future Plans[]
Eventually, the dynamic wiki space will be supplemented with an online issue-based Magazine offering XHTML and PDF downloads of stable article versions.
Created by R. Neill Hadder, Rogue Scholar October 2005
Last edited by Neill