All entries for Wednesday 12 February 2025

February 12, 2025

IAC Visit 2025 Brings a Chance for Exchanges’ Moment in the Spotlight

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/about/community/advisoryboard/

A chance to share what Exchanges does with senior academics, is something that is always worth getting excited about.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to present and discuss the Exchanges journal with the Institute’s International Advisory Committee (IAC), chaired by the esteemed Sir Vince Cable. As long-term readers will be aware, taking any opportunity to talk about publishing and what we do at Exchanges, is something I love to do. One of my mantras has long been ‘promote it: anywhere, anytime’ and this occasion certainly met those criteria. While I ended up having a somewhat reduced slot due to schedules being jiggled at the last minute, hopefully I gave the gathered dignitaries and members of the professoriate a fair accounting of what we do and why. Not to mention a little taste of what we hope for the future.

Part of the value of events like this to myself, and the journal, are that they permit a liminal space within which we can take stock, reflect and evaluate what has been achieved. For me, the most surprising little metric I found when drawing together my talk was realising the scale of how many editors who’ve passed through our doors during my (almost) seven years in office. A key part of our mission has long been not simply focussed on publishing, but also offering a developmental experience to early career scholars. To find how, as of writing, around 100 academics have been involved as my Board and associate editors since I started in 2018 is quite simply – flabbergasting! That is >quite< the community of practice we’ve helped enable![1]

It is my fervent hope that each of them carries a little bit of their Exchanges experience, and the collaborative, altruistic and empowering ethos the title operates under through into their professional lives. I do know from the ongoing ethnographic interviews I conduct as individuals depart our team how much past editors have learned from and value their experiences with us. That we’ve almost hit that magic century of past participants is one of those elements I think we’ll be celebrating later this year.

And in a small way, I hope the members of the IAC will share tales of our exploits further afield too – word of mouth and personal recommendations do play such a key part in people coming to publish with us!

---

Endnotes

[1] For the record: 58 previous editors and associate editors, and 47 currently working on the title (!). Over a hundred. Wow. All since 2018, when I took over!