ABSTRACT
In this introduction to her first issue, incoming editor Robin M. Boylorn reflects on some of the challenges and rewards she experienced during her editor-elect year, and outlines her goals and intentions for volumes 20 and 21.
If you are going to begin the editorship of an academic journal in your home discipline during a global pandemic, at the start of a publisher submission transition that will yield an unintentional backlog during your first quarter, and during a time of racial reckoning within the discipline and larger U.S. context, you may as well do it during the same year you are also going up for promotion to full professor, and then while also applying for your dream job. If you are doing it as the first Black woman to edit said journal, or any journal within the Association in the 21st year of the twenty-first century, but also at the same time the Association names its first Black woman Executive Director, Dr. Shari Miles-Cohen, and its first Black woman Second Vice President, Dr. Marnel Niles Goins, you may as well expect that your novel but necessary presence will at times be so unusual that contributors and reviewers alike question your decisions with regularity, especially within the first few months, and over the first year. They will challenge or attempt to police your decisions so much that you will at least temporarily question your own legitimacy, your adequacy. Thankfully, there will also be expressions of appreciation and an acknowledgment that the raced and gendered body you occupy matters—sometimes in who feels comfortable submitting to the journal, and other times in who feels justified in trying to bully or intimidate you. You will second-guess your decisions. You will feel confident in your decisions. You will utilize your decades-long experience occupying academic space as a Black woman and refuse to accept any attempt anyone makes to question your competence.
If you begin your editorship with extensive editorial experience, generous and renowned editorial board members, and an encouraging and resource-providing college, Association, and publisher, then you will, as I have, be successful at silencing the cynicism, ignoring the ignorance, and embracing the opportunity. You will also acquire some lessons that can guide how you approach your editorship while feeling anchored in place. In this brief introduction to my inaugural issue, I share some observations and guiding principles to my editorship informed by my editor-elect year.
The first year as editor-elect was character-building, and I learned not only how I want to be known and remembered as an editor, but what it means to be the first Black woman doing it. It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the fear of failure and significance of success that is measured in being a first Black anything. While journal editorship was not on my career bucket list, I understood what the representation might mean. And after co-editing multiple books and editing journal issues (including an award-winning oneFootnote1), I knew I had the skillset to be an editor. Question was—did I have the audacity?
The loss of bell hooks in December 2021 was a reminder for me of Black woman agency and legacy. It was bell hooks who introduced and drew me to cultural studies—her effortless cultural criticism, her brilliant cultural commentary, and her Black womanish critical consciousness both awakened and made possible my own research. She urged me to understand cultural studies as “what [we] see when we really look at [something] hard—hard.”Footnote2 She suggested “we practice cultural criticism ... in relation to living regular life, of using everything we already know to know more.”Footnote3 I embrace and embody this practice as an editor and scholar.
As I began writing and rewriting this introduction, I kept returning to hooks, I kept returning to myself. My vision for the journal over the next few years is to build on the incredible legacy of past editors, Greg Dickinson in particular, whose commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and perspectives was reflected in manuscripts received and/or accepted under his editorship. Many of these manuscripts will be included in my first-year issues. This progressive scholarship set an important precedent I intend to continue in making space for conversations of inclusion, representation and justice-seeking within the discipline of Communication and through the context of critical/cultural studies and communication. Accordingly, I am interested in publishing work that is culturally relevant and critically engaged—work that, borrowing from hooks, requires that we look at artifacts of culture “hard—hard,” and take “what we already know to know more.” I believe that the most publishable pieces are those that approach culture in a way that is timeless and that highlights what is not obvious. Cultural studies can tend to feel dated quickly, so authors should consider how an artifact can be grounded and situated in existing and emerging scholarship, but also in what makes it relevant and important. Additionally, while critical/cultural studies is and remains interdisciplinary, submissions should engage and privilege the disciplinary legacies and curiosities of communication. I have found that sometimes submissions focus on critical/cultural studies with an exclusion of its relationship to communication.
I am also committed to demystifying the revision and publication process. Many times authors are unaware of what happens once their manuscript is distributed for review. The review process should be understandable and accessible, so in addition to expanding my editorial board, I also offer the opportunity for advanced Ph.D. students and new faculty to earn ad-hoc reviewer experience as Third Reviewers. I believe seeing the process from both sides and understanding how manuscripts are evaluated (and why) is useful knowledge for scholars. I encourage reviewers to provide productive and detailed feedback, focusing on how manuscripts can be improved, and I encourage authors to receive constructive reviews with the spirit and intent of good will. Reviewers dedicate uncompensated time to manuscripts, and their efforts should be appreciated, even if/when there is disagreement.
I try to be as transparent with authors as possible, touching base when I am having a problem identifying or securing reviewers, explaining why some timelines are pushed back (oftentimes due to complications from COVID-19) and outlining the publication process for those whose manuscripts are accepted for publication. Unfortunately, not all manuscripts that are worthy of publication will be published. While I am committed to publishing unique and significant contributions to communication, publication decisions are not personal, and rejection decisions are situational and subjective. I genuinely want to make the review process an affirming and helpful experience by providing constructive feedback, especially for manuscripts that will ultimately not be published.
While I want to publish good ideas, I also want to publish good writing. My dedicated focus, as editor, will happen at the copyediting stage. No manuscript will be moved to production without my line-by-line editing and feedback with the intention of strengthening arguments and ensuring the intelligibility and clarity of ideas. As an editor and writer, I value the importance of revision and will use that process to challenge and mentor authors toward publication.
Lastly, I see my editorship as an opportunity to initiate and advance important conversations in the field. Because of this, I will avoid repetition and redundancy. If we receive multiple manuscripts about a similar topic, or about something that has been previously published, it will only be considered for publication if it is offering an advancement and pivot from the previous publication. I want to use my journal issues to innovate, inspire and interrogate important questions—and with the exception of thematic forums, that will often translate to varied approaches, topics and possibilities.
My editorship, 2022–24, will include, in 2023, the 20th volume of CC/CS and, in 2024, the 20th year of publication. To honor both the 20th volume and the 20th anniversary issues, I will be focusing on framing discussions on the past, present, and future of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. Within the scope of my issues, I am particularly interested in manuscripts that mark moments of transcendence, represent and attend to the ways critical and cultural study pushes us toward questions of justice, and engage representation and the situation of identity. I am committed to publishing high-quality research that engages the persistence of contemporary issues in provocative ways. My vision for Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies is informed by the cultural, political, and contemporary context in which we currently live, situated in the past and in anticipation of the future. Critical and cultural studies help us understand the specific through the context of the comprehensive. This research includes scholarship about power—who has it, who doesn’t, and why. I seek manuscripts that attempt to understand and dismantle power and engage questions about its resilience. How can critical/cultural studies be used to resist oppression? How can culture be used to deconstruct power? I am particularly interested in academic research that engages these questions through a historical lens of citation, an engagement of politically and socially relevant topics and present-day contexts (e.g., the pandemic, global and national politics, voter suppression, critical race theory, activism, postcolonialism, popular culture, indigeneity, activism) and with an intention of advancing social justice outcomes. I am interested in manuscripts that involve reflexivity and critical analysis, and that attend to the role of communication as a way to help explain and understand the world we live in and how it can help create a more just world we can thrive in. Publication priority will be given to manuscripts that directly align with my vision for the journal.
The first issue includes articles that challenge and position power in interesting ways, and introduces the first of a two-part forum, edited by Marina Levina, that includes short essays in conversation around the cultural relevance and impact of COVID-19 through the lens of language.
The pandemic has shaped all of our lives in immeasurable ways—for some through the loss of loved ones, for others, perhaps through estrangement and social distancing. As we enter the third year of the pandemic, and my first year as editor, I see a connection between the editorial lessons and life lessons I have learned. These lessons are related to resilience, optimism, inspiration, and hope. They are also connected to fear (of) failure, disappointment, hopelessness, and ambivalence. We have a lot yet to learn. And most importantly, I am still learning.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Greg Dickinson for his guidance, advice, and support during the editor transition period. I also want to thank my editorial assistant, LaTonya J. Taylor, for her tireless efforts and immeasurable experience, Fiona Richmond, Sophie Wade, Melissa Wilkinson and the entire T&F team for their help and patience in preparation for this inaugural issue, and Wendy Fernando, Kevin Barge, Devika Chawla and the NCA Publications Council for entrusting me with this enormous responsibility and opportunity. Lastly, I thank Marina Levina and all of the contributors of our two-part forum on COVID-19, and last but not least the CC/CS editorial board, especially those who rescued me during the summer SOS of 2021. I look forward to continued collaboration on future issues.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 See Robin M. Boylorn (2021) Visual voices and aural (auto)ethnographies: the personal, political, and polysemic value of storytelling and/in communication, Review of Communication, 21:1, 1-8, DOI: 10.1080/15358593.2021.1905870
2 bell hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (New York: Routledge, 1994), 2.
3 hooks, Outlaw Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), 2.