Crossing boundaries

U of W launches new academic student journal

Dr Steven Kohm will work with students so their research is ready to publish in the journal.

Photo by Keeley Braustein-Black

The University of Winnipeg (U of W) is taking research paper submissions from students for a new academic journal.

Crossings is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, academic student journal, which will be published annually and will feature outstanding undergraduate and graduate research in the humanities and social sciences at the U of W.

The creation of the journal is supported by the U of W’s president’s office and the Faculty of Arts. It will operate as an online open-access journal where all student submissions will be reviewed by experts in the fields.

Dr. Steven Kohm, associate professor and chair of department of criminal justice and Crossings’ managing editor, says that one of the ideas behind the journal is to link social sciences and humanities.

“We are crossing different disciplinary boundaries,” he says. “We want to open up dialogue between disciplines.”

One of the differences between Crossings and a traditional academic journal, such as the American Journal of Sociology, is that this will essentially be a student journal, according to Kohm.

“Our goal is to get students’ work published. So we don’t want to just reject work, we want to work with authors, we want to help them to make their piece stronger,” he says. 

“We are interested in helping students learn how to become better writers and introduce them to the world of publishing.”

Dr. Jane Barter, associate professor and chair of the department of religion and culture, says the new journal will encourage students to become researchers and will help them to learn more about the process of publishing.

“Students benefit from learning about the process of research and what it takes to produce research,” she says. “Writing in humanities and social sciences is the most important thing that we do, so giving them the opportunity to produce a really high caliber writing that is actually read by other people, not just their professors.”

Marieke Gruwel, a fifth-year student majoring in art history, who’s been sitting on the committee of the Crossings, brings in a student voice to the journal.

“Students are writing such amazing things and doing such amazing research, but there isn’t always lots of opportunities for students to put their research out there,” she says. 

“Sometimes it can be intimidating to send in your article or the paper that you wrote to somewhere to get published. And it’s important for the larger academic community because it’s such a great research.”

The deadline for this year’s submissions is Feb. 29.

The first issue of Crossings is set to be released in the October 2016 and will then be published on an annual basis.

Published in Volume 70, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 28, 2016)

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