Indiana University Press blog

IUP and Teachers College launch new journal, ‘Philanthropy & Education’

Debuting this month is Indiana University Press’s newest journal, Philanthropy & Education, sponsored by Teachers College at Columbia University. Philanthropy & Education is a biannual, international journal that publishes peer-reviewed scholarly research and practical analysis of educational giving, plus emerging philanthropic trends around the world. The journal aims to be relevant and useful to practitioners and scholars alike through the use of writing styles that are accessible by practitioners across a spectrum of disciplines and perspectives.

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“The study of how philanthropy shapes education is an emerging field of increasing importance, and having a dedicated, peer-reviewed journal will advance our understanding of crucial issues, while helping to build the field both within the U.S. and throughout the rest of the world,” writes journal editor and founder, Noah Drezner. In its premiere issue, Professor Drezner introduces the readers to a broad definition of philanthropy that encompasses both the voluntary actions that benefit education and the impact of education on these activities.

Published each May and November, the journal contains articles about scholarship and practice around education fundraising, volunteerism, civic engagement, alumni relations, corporate social responsibility, and how education fosters positive social behaviors. Articles from all aspects of domestic and international education from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, history, law, management, political science, psychology, public administration, religious studies, social work, and sociology are welcome.

“The partnership between Teachers College, as a leading graduate school of education, and Indiana University Press, as home of the premiere philanthropic studies book series and the only school of philanthropy, is a major step toward establishing this field of study.”
- Noah Drezner

Philanthropy & Education is distinctive in publishing research articles by scholar-practitioners, with many drawn from recently completed dissertations and current institutional research. The journal examines how giving by individuals and corporations influences worldwide education trends and practices, as well as the movement of philanthropic and educational practices across national borders. Additionally, the journal is launching a scholar-practitioner mentoring program, in which senior scholars assist scholar-practitioners during the peer-review process of their research and publication.

“We are delighted to partner with Teachers College to publish such a needed and timely journal,” said Gary Dunham, Director of Indiana University Press. “With more than two hundred academic programs focusing on philanthropy and philanthropy education in the US alone, the field is a rapidly growing area of research and practice."

Teachers College will formally launch the journal on November 9 at the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s annual conference in Houston.

Interested in learning more? Noah Drezner’s editorial, “Philanthropy & Education: Setting the Mission and Vision for a New Journal within the Landscape of Our Field,” can be read for free on JSTOR.

For information on how to subscribe or submit, please visit IU Press.

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Noah D. Drezner is the founder and editor of Philanthropy & Education and an associate professor of higher education at Teachers College. Professor Drezner is also a former advancement officer with the University of Rochester who has earned awards for his research on factors that motivate alumni donors. His research interests include philanthropy and fundraising as it pertains to colleges and universities, including higher education's role in the cultivation of prosocial behaviors. His research focuses on how social identity impacts philanthropic giving.

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Philanthropy & Education 1.1 Table of Contents

 • READ FOR FREE • 
Philanthropy & Education: Setting the Mission and Vision for a New Journal within the Landscape of Our Field
Noah D. Drezner

 • READ FOR FREE •  
Philanthropic Giving by Foundations to Higher Education Institutions: A State-Level Social Network Analysis
Kevin R. McClure, Leah Frierson, Adam W. Hall and Kara L. Ostlund

The Lived Experiences of African American Development Administrators At Public Universities
T. Greg Prince and David J. Siegel

CASE STUDY

Securing Donor Support for Unrestricted Endowments: A Case Study in Higher Education
Aaron T. Conley

TEACHING BRIEF

Reciprocity as a Foundational Concept in Teaching Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies
Elizabeth J. Dale

BOOK REVIEWS

World-Class Fundraising Isn't a Solo Sport by Buller, Jeffrey L., & Reeves, Diane M.
Review by: Joseph P. Neary

Lasting Impressions: Laying the Foundation for Engaged and Philanthropic Future Alumni by Carter, Jasmine Stewart, Nugent, Daniel, & Neeley, Robyn (Editors)
Review by: Lisa C. Guzman

Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa by Jaumont, Fabrice
Review by: Kyle A. Long

Going for the Gold: How to Become a World-Class Academic Fundraiser by Buller, Jeffrey L. and Reeves, Dianne M.
Review by: Sophie W. Penney

Guest Author Alvin Rosenfeld: "The signs at the moment are not good."

A message from Alvin Rosenfeld, director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism here at IU:

Last Tuesday’s New York Times carried a lengthy front-page story entitled “Threats Leave Jews on Edge in Trump Era.” And on the same day, the USA Today ran an equally prominent story with the headline “Jewish Communities Besieged by Vandals.” Both stories and numerous others like them deal with the upsurge in anti-Jewish hostility in multiple locations around the country. Jewish institutions in some 33 cities have been targeted for bomb threats; about 100 of these attacks have occurred over the past several weeks. And, to everyone’s concern here, Indiana has not been exempt from this hatred: Indianapolis’s Jewish Community Center was targeted with a bomb threat, and a synagogue in Evansville, Indiana was shot at just last week. In addition, Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in Philadelphia and near St. Louis; swastika daubings have defaced Jewish properties in several cities; and some of America’s campuses are rife with angry and aggressive anti-Israel and antisemitic activities.

In short, anti-Jewish hostilities in America are on the upsurge and, to date, law enforcement agencies have not been successful in stopping the spread of this hatred or in identifying who is behind it. Just how bad it is likely to get, no one can say for certain, but the signs at the moment are not good and lots of people out there—Jews and non-Jews alike--know it.

At such an ominous time, serious teaching and scholarship on antisemitism have been lacking. Fortunately, Indiana University is an exception. Our Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA), which I direct, is one of only two university-based centers in this country that focuses systematic, high-level research on contemporary antisemitism. In addition, IU Press is emerging as our country’s leading academic publisher in the field of antisemitism studies with the on-going book series “Studies in Antisemitism” and, launching April 1st, the new journal Antisemitism Studies. Anyone who wants to understand the return of anti-Jewish hatred into the public sphere – what motivates it, how it manifests itself, who its major actors are, how it both resembles and differs from the past – will benefit greatly from the work that ISCA and IU Press are doing.

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Now Available:

	Deciphering the New Antisemitism Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
	European Muslim Antisemitism: Why Young Urban Males Say They Don't Like Jews by Günther Jikeli
	Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
	Radical French Thought and the Return of the "Jewish Question"   by Eric Marty Translated by Alan Astro Foreword by Bruno Chaouat
	Dreams Deferred A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel by Cary Nelson

Forthcoming Books and Journals:

Antisemitism Studies edited by Catherine Chatterley (Apr 2017)

Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization edited by Alvin Rosenfeld (Dec 2017)

“Ruskin’s Dust”: Editor's Choice for Victorian Studies 58.3

Ella Mershon’s article, “Ruskin’s Dust,” has been awarded Editor’s Choice of Victorian Studies 58.3 and can now be read for free at JSTOR. Ella Mershon introduces us to her research below:

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By Ella Mershon

It creeps into our homes. Seemingly out of nowhere.

It slips into quiet corners, steals under cozy beds, and slides into confidential drawers. It hails from nowhere, yet lands everywhere and partakes of everything, cataloguing the minuscule detritus of flesh and fabric, pollens and toxins, microbes and minerals. 

In its mysterious and mundane reappearance, dust is the quintessential “matter out of place”—a substance we try to remove to maintain socially acceptable standards of household cleanliness and personal hygiene. And it is this view that tends to dominate our thinking about Victorian dust, which often gets read as a symbolic marker of purity and pollution, demarcating the fraught boundary between disease and disinfection, urban squalor and bourgeois cleanliness.

But even as Victorian sanitary reformers worried about the corrupting effects of dust, Victorian geologists studied the mineralogical processes that linked together erosion, sedimentation, and crystallization; chemists analyzed the molecular processes that joined decomposition and recombination; and biologists investigated the cellular processes that connected degeneration and growth. That is, even as the Victorians were cleaning up, they were casting out new definitions of “dust.”  Dust was not only matter out of place. It was matter borne on the stream of time, ceaselessly recombining itself into new formations.

In “Ruskin’s Dust,” I pursue the formative potential of Victorian dust by taking up John Ruskin’s lifelong interest in rock formation. While considered the foremost art critic of his day, Ruskin was also an amateur geologist, who turned his prodigious powers of observation not only to the sculpted contours of the Alps but also to the mineralogical composition of rocks. In his study of mountain geology, Ruskin developed his own idiosyncratic system of rock classification, which distinguished the “compact crystallines” from the “slaty crystallines” and the “slaty coherents” from the “compact coherents” based upon the degree to which they were “more or less frangible or soluble” (133). For Ruskin, the adamantine rock was a delicate, semi-liquid solution that was made “to melt under the soft lambency of the streamlet [and] to shiver before the subtle wedge of the frost” (134). Continually subjected to aqueous erosion, Ruskin’s mountain rocks flowed into and out of existence as the temporary combination of particles of “dust.”

Because rocks existed as melting, shivering chemical compositions, Ruskin came to realize that their susceptibility to erosive forces ultimately constituted their ability to resolve themselves into new crystalline forms. Hence, Ruskin’s “dust” came to represent not only the chemical potentiality latent in the drift of oceanic sand and the slime of stagnant lakes, but also the aesthetic and ethical possibilities inherent to experiences of patient suffering and silent repose. Placing Ruskin’s The Ethics of the Dust (1865) in the context of his lifelong writing on the processes of geo-chemical dissolution, this essay explores the aesthetics and ethics of self-formation from the gendered perspective of dust, as its chemical potentiality manifested in the developing bodies of the girls of Winnington Hall. For Ruskin, girl-dust represented the power of inorganic matter to form itself anew.  

Tracing the connection between Ruskin’s geo-chemical conception of “dust” and its broader social and historical contexts, this essay moves from The Ethics of the Dust to Victorian debates about inorganic matter’s vital forms. In the 1860s, contentious debates erupted over the status of the Foraminifera, an animal confused with a mineral, and the Eozooön Canadense, a mineral mistaken for an animal. The two cases reveal that Ruskin was not alone in locating formative power in minerals. From these discrete cases of inorganic matter’s self-formation, I turn to the mid-century revival of Lucretian monism as an index to Victorian fears and fantasies about the ceaseless rearrangements of atoms in a world of molecular flux. 

While the Victorians’ chemical conception of dust revealed the radical instability of form as molecules briefly came together and drifted apart, dust’s infinite recombinations held out the promise of resource renewal for a rapidly expanding nation of consumers. Shifting from the oblique discussion of resource regeneration in The Ethics of the Dust to the pointed question of resource scarcity in Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1865), the essay ends with a consideration of the gender politics of resource replenishment as they inhere in the geo-chemical transformations of that precious resource: coal. 

Read more in Ella Mershon’s article, “Ruskin’s Dust," from Victorian Studies 58.3.

 

Work Cited

Ruskin, John. Modern Painters. Vol. 6. The Works of John Ruskin. Eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. London: Allen, 1903-12.

Teachers College and IU Press Launch Philanthropy & Education

Teachers College, Columbia University, and Indiana University Press are pleased to announce the publication of a new peer-reviewed journal, Philanthropy & Education. The journal showcases the increasingly important role of education philanthropy, in the United States and around the world, as private and public colleges, universities, secondary, and primary schools are fundraising for not only for supplemental but also for essential needs.

The journal’s mission is to promote scholarship and inform practice around philanthropy, which is broadly defined as including, but not limited to: fundraising, volunteerism, civic engagement, alumni relations, corporate social responsibility, prosocial behavior development, and the professionalization of the field of practice. As such, Philanthropy & Education seeks to publish empirical and scholarly studies that are accessible to practitioners with clear implication for implementation.

Philanthropy & Education encourages articles from all aspects of education (K–20+) both domestically and internationally, and from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including, such as anthropology, economics, history, law, management, political science, psychology, public administration, religious studies, social work, and sociology. Philanthropy & Education welcomes submissions from scholar-practitioners, particularly those who have recently completed their dissertations.

The journal is edited by Noah D. Drezner, Associate Professor of Higher and Postsecondary Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. “I am thrilled to be launching Philanthropy & Education,” declared Dr. Drezner. The study of how philanthropy shapes education is an emerging field of increasing importance, and having a dedicated, peer-reviewed journal will advance our understanding of crucial issues, while helping to build the field both within the US and throughout the rest of the world.  Bringing together Teachers College, Columbia University, a leading graduate school of education, and Indiana University Press, home of the premiere philanthropic studies book series and the only school of philanthropy, is a major step toward establishing this field of study. They will make wonderful partners in this effort.”

Philanthropy & Education’s editorial board is composed of leading scholars and scholar-practitioners from around the world working in education, history, philanthropic studies, sociology, and other disciplines.

“Vision and values are essential to the life of Teachers College, Columbia University,” observed Thomas James, Provost and Dean of the College.  “We are proud of this initiative under the leadership of Noah Drezner because it exemplifies our commitment to generating of new knowledge in critically important fields, and it embodies our determination to build strong and diverse institutions that can advance educational opportunity for all.”

“We are delighted to partner with Teachers College, Columbia University to publish such a needed and timely journal,” said Gary Dunham, Director of Indiana University Press and Digital Publishing. “With more than two hundred academic programs focusing on philanthropy and philanthropy education in the US alone, the field is a rapidly growing area of research and practice. Philanthropy & Education will serve as an important publishing venue for this research that is both interdisciplinary in nature and global in its reach.”

Philanthropy & Education expects that its articles will not only advance promising research, but will also provide practical advice for practitioners in nonprofit organizations, government agencies, corporations, and institutions of education around the world. Furthermore, the journal will include a special mentoring program for emerging scholars who will benefit from added guidance on writing and publishing their research.

Special Mentoring Program for Young Scholars and Scholar-Practitioners

As more fundraising practitioners seek advanced degrees, they are not able to publish their dissertation research for two reasons. First is the lack of a dedicated venue to disseminating this research. Second is the combination of the increasing demands of their positions and the lack of mentoring beyond graduation on how to convert dissertations to journal articles. In order to encourage and promote the dissemination of this research, Philanthropy & Education is introducing a special mentoring program for young scholars and scholar-practitioners. Philanthropy & Education will devote space in each issue to empirical articles from these emerging scholars. To further encourage these submissions, the Philanthropy & Education editorial board is committed to mentoring the authors through the publication process. Scholar-practitioner and recent graduates’ submissions that are eligible for the mentoring program will undergo the standard review process. However, after the double-blind peer-review process is complete, those articles that are determined to be revise-and-resubmits will be assigned a publication mentor from the editorial board. The mentor will help the author respond to the reviewers’ requests and provide developmental editing to prepare the manuscript for its second review.

The journal will be published semiannually. Its inaugural edition is slated for November 2016. For more information about Philanthropy & Education and to view its submissions guidelines, visit http://iupress.indiana.edu/journals/ped/.

Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies Seeking Article Submissions

The Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies invites submissions for its second issue (volume 1, number 2, July–December 2016) which has as its theme, "Emotions, Humans and Animals." 

Sponsored by the Khaldunia Centre for Historical Research in Lahore, Pakistan and published semiannually by Indiana University Press, the Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that aims to develop critical ideas on less explored and innovative themes in social, cultural, art, architectural, political, and economic histories. For this special issue, the editors are interested in articles that explore the emotional relationships between humans and animals in any region and period. The issue is concerned with, but not limited to:

• the study of emotions reflected in social and cultural construction of animals in human societies;
• the use of animal signs for characterizing human experiences and metaphysical and religious ideas;
• the association and disassociation of humans with animals in agrarian and industrialized societies; and
• innovative theoretical and methodological approaches for studying the emotions involved in human-animal relationships.

The editors also interested in works exploring the post-humanist approaches which historicize the emotional behaviour among animals by moving beyond constructionism.

To submit a manuscript for consideration, please visit https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/pjhs  Begin the submissions process by registering an account—or log in to your existing account—and select the ‘new submission’ link.  Visit the Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies online for more information. 

The deadline for submitting research articles, review articles, and book reviews is June 1, 2016.

 

Traveling War: Memory Practices in Motion

History & Memory: Traveling War, Memory Practices in Motion

The fall/winter 2015 issue of History & Memory takes as its focus "Traveling War: Memory Practices in Motion." Published by Indiana University Press, this special issue is coedited by Geoffrey M. White and Eveline Buchheim. White is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Buchheim is a researcher at NIOD, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. 

While the spatial and architectural fixities of war memory have long attracted scholarly attention in research on memorials, monuments, battlegrounds and their commemorative practices, memory studies increasingly turn their attention to the social and performative practices that make past experiences “real” or relevant in the present. Scholars who focus on the constructions of history emerging in and around memorial sites now reject models that assume singular or fixed significance for those sites, choosing rather to see them as sites of dialogue or performative enactments of history. It is in this context that the authors collected here trace the paths of people moving through spaces of remembrance, crossing border zones where relevant identities gain heightened significance.

New African Fiction from Transition Magazine

Transition 117 celebrates diasporic vision and creativity with a selection of new poetry and short fiction. But first, the issue opens with a sobering selection of responses to the killing of unarmed black Americans by police, culled from Transition’s online #ICantBreathe forum.

Since the publication of Tope Folarin’s 2013 Caine Prize-winning story, “Miracle,” Transition has been overwhelmed by submissions from African and Africa-descended writers. This issue shares the best from its fiction inbox—the adventurous, the erotic, the audacious—each story embodying “creation working on itself,” in the words of Folarin, who introduces the collection.

Also in this issue explore the inner dilemma of the ‘Afropolitan’ with Taiye Selasi; wait in line for a Ugandan ID card with Mary Serumaga; pay tribute to one of our early editors, the late Ali Mazrui; and herald the opening of the new Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art with David Adjaye, Mariane Ibrahim-Lenhardt, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. As Folarin writes in his introduction, we hope you will savor this issue: “Who knows? In time, you might notice that something new is blooming inside you.”

READ FOR FREE:

The National Identity Card by Mary Serumaga

Sneak Preview of ACPR 1.1

The first issue of African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review (ACPR) is taking shape. It will include an introduction by ACPR Editors Abu Bah, Mark Davidheiser, Niklas Hultin, and Tricia Hepner on “The Local and Global Dynamic of Powerlessness and Empowerment in African Conflicts and Peacebuilding.”  

In addition, there will be essays on:
 “The Impact of Multiparty Politics on Local Government in Uganda” by Terrell G. Manyak and Isaac Wasswa Katono;
 “Somali and Ethiopian Diasporic Engagement for Peace in the Horn of Africa” by Markus Virgil Hoehne; Dereje Feyissa and Mahdi Abdile;

“Rape in Contemporary Warfare: The Role of Globalization in Wartime Sexual Violence”  by Sara Meger;

 “Mugabe Must Go: Textual Meanings of the Representation of the Zimbabwean Situation by the South African Press” by Fredrick Ogenga; among others.

 The issue will also include briefings on:

 “Multilateralism: Challenges of International Mediation in Regional Conflicts” by Ibrahim Gambari; and

 “Conflict Drivers: Environmental Degradation and Corruption in the Niger Delta Region” by Ebiede Tarila Marclint

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The multimedia component will include “Perspectives from Sierra Leone’s Youth” by Paul Dixon. 
Check back for more information on the final contents of volume 1, number 1 of ACPR (to be published in spring 2011).

Abu Bakarr Bah to present at ASMEA Annual Conference

Abu Bakarr Bah, the editor of ACPR, African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review*, will be attending the annual meeting of ASMEA (Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa) to be held in Washington, D.C., November 4-6, 2010. He will be presenting a paper on “The Contours of Humanitarian Intervention:  War and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone” from 8:30-10:00 AM on Friday, the 4th. The focus of the meeting is on “The Middle East and Africa in the 21st Century: Local Trends, Regional Challenges, Global Impacts.” This is the third annual conference of ASMEA, an academic society dedicated to promoting the highest standards of research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies. The society was formed in response to the mounting interest in these increasingly inter-related fields and the absence of any single group addressing them in a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary fashion.

In the abstract for his presentation, Professor Bah writes, “The tide of civil wars in Africa and other parts of the world has raised considerable debates about international response to security and humanitarian crises. This paper examines the international response to the civil war in Sierra Leone. It argues that the international intervention evolved from traditional peacekeeping to a robust military intervention and peacebuilding effort driven by new humanitarianism. By analyzing the roles of regional organizations and the United Nations in the Sierra Leone civil war, the paper demonstrates the political conditions that led to robust humanitarian intervention, the implications of military humanitarianism, and the nature of new humanitarianism.”

*African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review (ACPR) is a new semi-annual journal to be launched by Indiana University Press/Journals in early 2011. The goal of the journal is to translate knowledge into tools that can make a difference to society in a world in which ideas and actions are locked together. “The purpose of knowledge,” says ACPR editor Abu Bakarr Bah, “is not knowledge for the sake of knowing, but knowledge for the sake of improving the human condition.”

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The time is right for African Conflict and Peacebuilding (ACPR)

 
The staff of IUP/Journals recently conducted an interview with Abu Bakarr Bah about his vision of African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review (ACPR), our newest title.

IUP/J: What makes the time right for ACPR?

BAH: I see three key things that make it the right time for ACPR.

First, there are ongoing conflicts and political tensions in Africa that need serious scholarly and policy attention. At the same time, there are intriguing efforts to build peace, and Africans are taking ownership of their problems and political destiny. In addition, the struggles for democracy have transformed the relationship between the people and the power holders, and young people are becoming more involved in addressing the fundamental political, economic, and social issues that often lead to conflict. ACPR will be a major outlet for work that focuses on the conflict and peacebuilding efforts in Africa. 

Second, studies and policy debates on conflict and peacebuilding in Africa have not received the attention they deserve in major academic publishing outlets, and it is still the case that most works on Africa in the major journals are by people who do not live and work there. ACPR will make high quality works by scholars and practitioners based in Africa accessible to a wider audience, especially in the United States. I think that it will be refreshing to read about Africa through the lens of people who work and live there.

Third, there is a growing recognition that multiple voices and mediums of expression are needed in the effort to promote conditions for peace in Africa. Scholars, policy makers, and activists have a common goal of understanding the causes and the nature of conflict in Africa and finding ways to promote peace. ACPR will encourage the interaction of ideas and perspectives across disciplines, professions, geographic locations, generations, and worldviews and will transcend professional and generational boundaries.

IUP/J:  Why is there a need for creative and rigorous study of conflict resolution in Africa?

BAH: The more we study conflict resolutions, the better are the chances of improving the human condition in Africa. We need to move beyond simple descriptions and ideological biases and engage in critical study of the causes of conflicts, the institutional arrangements that are most likely to maintain peace, and the elements of our cultures that promote or hinder peace. My view is that the ultimate purpose of knowledge is not knowledge for the sake of knowing but knowledge for the sake of improving the human condition. This does not mean some kind of utopian vision of peace and justice, but, rather, it is about translating knowledge into practical tools that can make some difference in society.

IUP/J:  What is a holistic view of peace and conflict?

BAH: In my mind, a holistic view of peace and conflict is one that links the nature and effects of conflict with the conditions that lead to conflict. Similarly, it is the perspective that links peace to the conditions that undermine or promote peace. A holistic view of peace and conflict will be informed by multiple disciplines, professional backgrounds, and lived experiences.

IUP/J: In your view, what is the link between research and activism?

BAH: We live in a world in which ideas and action are locked together. Research should uphold the principles of objectivity and non-ideological commitments in the pursuit of knowledge and solutions to human problems. However, research by itself will not change the human condition. Knowledge has to be acted upon. Activism should be clearly separated from research. Research should not be reduced to activism. Researchers should be open about their policy preferences, biases and worldview. As a journal that bridges research and policy, ACPR will be sensitive to this issue. The journal will ensure that policy preferences are presented as such and not as definitive scientific knowledge. The issue question is, “How do we take the ideas from research and put them into practice?”
 
IUP/J: Why is it important to include analysis of creative approaches such as film and media in your discussion?

BAH: We live in a digital age, and the regular inclusion of such materials in ACPR is a way to engage people of diverse backgrounds and generations. The more people and perspectives we invite into the debate, the better the debate. Creative approaches can be very useful tools for teaching, and ACPR will provide instructors with quality materials to which students can easily relate.

IUP/J: Talk about your goal to stimulate quality public discourse about African conflict and resolution.

BAH: Our goal is make quality scholarship and policy reflections widely available. It is important to include the works of people who live and work in Africa is this discourse. ACPR will meet high quality academic standards and encourage a discourse that includes wide-ranging perspectives and backgrounds. One of our major objectives is to provide a high quality forum where scholarship and policy debates interact.

IUP/J:  Why is it important that ACPR be available to African individuals and institutions?

BAH: ACPR is, first and foremost, about the African condition. Africans, especially those in Africa, have a stake in the mission of the journal. They should also have a voice in it. One thing that excites me the most is the possibility of promoting discourse among scholars and policy makers in Africa.

IUP/J: How will you guarantee that African voices will be included in the journal?

BAH: ACPR will make sure that scholars and practitioners across Africa are aware of the opportunities in ACPR. The editors of ACPR have extensive networks across Africa. Most importantly, the West African Research Association and the Africa Peace and Conflict Network, which are the sponsors of ACPR, have been working with African scholars and practitioners for a long time. ACPR will tap into their resources.


Abu Bakarr Bah is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Northern Illinois University. His research focuses on issues of democracy, nation building, ethnicity, and the peace-making and peace-building role of the international community. He has a PhD from the New School for Social Research.