Public Humanities journal seeks to disrupt “traditional academic landscape”

Developed as a place for scholars, students, activists, journalists, policymakers, professionals, practitioners, and non-specialists to connect and share knowledge, Cambridge University Press’ journal, Public Humanities, launched in 2024, seeks to disrupt the traditional publishing format and bring new research to the public sphere.

Edited by Professor Jeffrey R. Wilson from Harvard University and Dr Zoe Hope Bulaitis from the University of Birmingham, UK, Public Humanities delivers four themed issues per year and accepts ‘of the moment’ pieces which promise a fast, peer-reviewed turnaround.

“We see Public Humanities as a rendezvous for people who are thinking about the connections between humanities scholarship and public life,” says Professor Jeffrey Wilson.

“That means we’re a big tent that brings together lots of different people—from public intellectuals, policy experts, and activist scholars to journalists, students, and professionals at cultural organisations, plus the wide readership who might just want a quick hit of intellectual thought or conversation during their morning coffee or commute.”

“The journal grew from a disconnect between, on the one hand, the clear benefits that the humanities bring to our individual and social lives and, on the other, the pitfalls of standard academic publishing, which encourages scholars to write for an extremely narrow set of readers who share the same PhD as the author, clouds good ideas behind bad writing, and then imprisons knowledge behind exorbitant paywalls that only privileged people can access via their affiliations with wealthy institutions.”

What are the public humanities?

“Put simply, the public humanities happens whenever someone brings research-backed thought to the interpretation of human culture and creativity,” says Professor Wilson.

“That means that public humanities is an extremely common phenomenon in our lives, in sharp contrast to the alleged “crisis in the humanities”. That crisis only exists in the academic humanities. The public humanities are thriving, and those moments of public humanities are often the most meaningful moments in our day, week, month, or year.”

Public Humanities’ inaugural issue is The Manifesto Issue, edited by the journal’s co-founders, Zoe Hope Bulaitis and Jeffrey R. Wilson.

“For someone who might be working full time and just doing their best to feed their family and make a positive contribution to their community, those moments of public humanities create space to live in the world of ideas for just a bit.”

Professor of Ancient History at the University of Sydney, Julia Kindt FAHA represents Australia on Public Humanities’ editorial board and affirms the agenda of the journal is purposefully broad. AAH’s Executive Director, Inga Davis, is also on the advisory committee.

“Pieces are written in a different style from your usual academic journal. It’s really meant to be accessible and to be engaging and to communicate knowledge without ‘dumbing it down’,” Prof Kindt says. “Already in the inaugural issue, The Manifesto Issue, we are covering topics across conflict, artificial intelligence, climate, democracy, race, gender, and empathy.”

Two-to-three ‘of the moment’ articles are published per week on topics ranging from the value of the humanities during times of crisis, to whether chatbots can be “authentic”, to the learnings museums and gallery professionals could glean from audience engagement via the video game Animal Crossings: New Horizons.

“Humanities research is arguably as important or more important than ever, because the humanities speak to a lot of current crises facing our society, and our future. Whether that’s issues concerning public health, the environment, or the increasing polarisation. There’s a social need for the humanities.”

Sharing research as widely as possible

The journal is open access and shareable under Creative Commons, which allows articles to be republished on third-party sites as long as they are properly cited.

“None of us want our research behind a paywall,” Professor Kindt continues. “It’s important that it’s shared as widely as possible, and people can inform themselves about all sorts of things. But I think it’s particularly important for a journal that focuses on the public humanities, that wants to break down the barrier between public sphere and academic work.”

Public Humanities also welcomes articles across the year for its ‘of the moment’ series, which promises peer-reviewed articles published within a few weeks, not months, allowing humanities researchers to utilise their research to respond to current issues.

“There’s a real tension between the immediacy with which we want deep expertise to help us understand the most urgent issues of our day and the time it takes to create, test out, and publish high-quality knowledge,” says Professor Wilson.

“We’ve figured out a way to do peer-reviewed articles that are speedily delivered to readers and free for them to read. Our Of the Moment section offers readers bold, research-backed answers to the big questions that matter most to them, and it offers scholars a venue for sharing knowledge that can inform public discussion and debate while issues are still live—not 18 months later, as often happens with academic publishing.”

When asked what it’s like working with such a diverse editorial board, Professor Kindt laughs, “first of all, the downside is that I have to get up at ungodly hours to join the editorial meetings in the middle of the night.”

“But if I’m being serious, this is one of the most incredible things I’ve done, just because it is so fascinating, working at an international scale across so many disciplines. My background is in the classics, and I’m the only classicist on the editorial collective, but I’ve found the work, the diversity of viewpoints and research and perspective, so rewarding.”

Public Humanities journal is published by Cambridge University Press.

The post Public Humanities journal seeks to disrupt “traditional academic landscape” appeared first on Australian Academy of the Humanities.