Syracuse University’s Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, launched a new journal on October 5th.
From Imagining America:
The first issue of Public: A Journal of Imagining America, foregrounding the arts, humanities, and design in public life, launched October 5th with a double-issue focusing on the linked fates and futures of universities and their surrounding communities. Public breaks new ground as a hybrid online multimedia journal and archive, with innovative web interfaces to peer-reviewed multi-modal scholarship and creative work. It furthers Imagining America’s mission to make visible the value of cultural disciplines and promotes Syracuse University as a national leader in publicly engaged scholarship and practice.
Public was developed by three Syracuse University professors–University Professor and former Imagining America (IA) director Jan Cohen-Cruz, Associate Professor of Architecture Brian Lonsway, and Assistant Professor of Design Kathleen Brandt–as the first e-journal to be published by Syracuse Unbound, a joint imprint of Syracuse University Libraries and Syracuse University Press. The University’s Information Technology and Support division collaborated on web development and, with Syracuse University Libraries, provides technical support for the journal’s content management systems.
Senior editor and co-founder Dr. Jan Cohen-Cruz explains the importance of Public as a space for boundary-expanding artists, designers, and scholars. “Journals have played significant roles in solidifying the contribution of particular bodies of knowledge to public life-think of the role of journals in the women’s movement, is the effort to recognize African American and Latino/a Studies as significant scholarly and social projects. We hope Public will similarly contribute to publicly engaged scholarship and practice emphasizing public humanities, arts, and design especially given the possibilities that our online format opens up.”
Co-founders and journal designers Kathleen Brandt and Brian Lonsway developed the journal’s unique frameworks, including interactive articles and data visualizations, to build upon and highlight the diversities and pluralities–as well as their many forms of engagement–that are at the core of Imagining America.
Dr. K. Matthew Dames, interim Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at Syracuse University, notes: “The journal Public is a concrete example of exciting current and forthcoming work emanating from the Libraries and the Press, and provides further evidence of the Press’ commitment to extending all forms of scholarship into the digital and multimedia platforms.”
Public is a signature program of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a national consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities, currently hosted by Syracuse University, that catalyzes change in campus practices, structures, and policies. It seeks to enable publicly engaged artists, designers, and scholars to thrive and contribute to community action and revitalization.
For more information visit http://public.imaginingamerica.org, or contact the editor at public@imaginingamerica.org.