All 2 entries tagged Associate

State of Play in February 2024 for Exchanges

A February update on the special issue fun and games, and everything that's going on with the journal right now.

My apologies to regular readers for neglecting the blog somewhat in recent weeks. I have had quite a busy few weeks dealing primarily with the submission deadlines for two special issues [1] coming at the end of January which has been followed by a huge wave of submission to Exchanges. I’ve also taught a couple of classes and had a filthy cold too. However, in terms of the manuscripts we have had far more submissions in a relatively short period than I’ve ever dealt with before. Certainly in all my years on the journal at least! Even our biggest issues to date – the Nerds and Cannibalism special issues, had submissions spread across a much broader period of time as I recall. In the past two weeks though with the two issues I’ve had at least 50 new articles to deal with – which for Exchanges equates to about the number we can have submitted in an entire year.

So, yes, it has been a busy old time. But I’ll say it’s been a really exciting one too. To have so many potentially fantastic papers by so many wonderful authors around the world, entrusted with the journal for consideration is deeply gratifying. It’s at times like these I wonder if Exchanges might be better off being a special issues journal all of the time, as each of these special issues have had such a high volume of contributions. Although perhaps not quite this high!

Of course, part and parcel of this workload for me has been training and supporting the small new army of associate editors we now have working on the two issues. I have to say they are all acquitting themselves superbly, and while there are a lot of questions – that is to be expected! And indeed, encouraged! I don’t expect associate editors to be able to run before they can walk, so such guidance is freely and gratefully given. It is also refreshing to have many new people working on the journal. Not only for the fresh energy and enthusiasm they bring, which they certainly do, but also for the new insights they offer. Things I might not otherwise have thought about. Elements I’ve not considered for a while. Or new perspectives from angles I might not even have otherwise taken. Consequently, they’ve gotten me thinking about a few tasks on the back end of the journal that would benefit from my attention. Tasks that otherwise might have sat on the back burner indefinitely.

We’re also in a week of Library Board and Team meetings, a chance for me to update all of the team about what’s going on broadly with Exchanges. But also for them all to reflect back on the experience and share their opinions on topics of mutual interest. There’s probably a separate post I’ll write about that next week.

In the meantime, it’s back to dealing with yet another new submission this morning. One thing I can say about February 2024 for Exchanges – it isn’t a quiet month – and all the better for it!

---

Endnotes

[1] The MRC @ 50 and Research Culture issues respectively. Read about them both earlier in the blog!

Gareth Johnson : 14 Feb 2024 07:44 |  Tags: Associate Editors Issues Progress Special Update |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Volume 8.2 – Special CliFi Issue Published

Writing about web page https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/issue/view/38

The labours of 18 months came to an end last week as we launched our second special issue, developed as a result of 2019’s 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society hosted in a sunny Prato, Italy. The irony of the issue launch coming in the middle of ‘Beast from the East 2’, and thick driving snow outside my window isn’t lost on me! I’ve been delighted throughout the production of this issue to continue working with a number of our associate editors, drawn from the PGR community, an experience we celebrated and reflected upon in our most recent podcast.

While, size-wise, the issue doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of last year’s Cannibalism issue - which actually made it easier to pull together from a lead editor perspective – the issue remains a very rich and interesting one. Here’s the rundown of the contents:

Johnson, G.J., 2021. A Change in the Wind: Editorial, Volume 8, Part 2. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. i-xii. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.784

Farnell, I., 2021. Things Are Heating Up: Reflections on Utopia, Dystopia and Climate Change, the 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.531

Alberro, H., 2021. In the Shadow of Death: Loss, hope and radical environmental activism in the Anthropocene. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 8-27. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.510

Novello, C., 2021. Ecological Destruction and Consumerism: A critique of modern society through the works of the contemporary German author Ilija Trojanow. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 28-46. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.581

Rey Segovia, A., 2021. Climate Fiction and its Narratives: (Non) Secularists imaginaries for the environmental collapse. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 47-68. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.539

Tait, A., 2021. Environmental Crisis, Cli-fi, and the Fate of Humankind in Richard Jefferies’ After London and Robert Harris’ The Second Sleep. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 69-83. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.554

Horsfield, R., 2021. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Borders in the Anthropocene. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 84-98. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.584

Xausa, C., 2021. Climate Fiction and the Crisis of Imagination: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria and The Swan Book. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 99-119. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.555

Holding, S., 2021. What on Earth Can Atlantis Teach Us? Cli-fi and the inconvenient truth behind our pre-history. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 8(2), pp. 120-131. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.582

The DOI for the issue as a whole is: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2

Naturally, all articles are fully open access and available to read freely to all. Please do share this with anyone you think would be interested in this lovely articles, or perhaps would like to consider writing for us to contribute to a future issue. We always welcome new, and returning, authors alike. My thanks as always to all our authors, reviewers and editors who contributed to making this issue an undoubted success. Now, to start preparations for volume 8(3) due out in late spring…

Gareth Johnson : 09 Feb 2021 09:40 |  Tags: Associate Clifi Climate Editors Fiction Issue New Published Special |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem