Workshop for Stanford graduate students only. Register at sututor.stanford.edu.
This workshop will address a full spectrum of issues related to getting published in the humanities and social sciences. We will begin by discerning the prerequisites to publication: What makes a piece of criticism or research publishable? What kinds of moves do published scholars tend to make on the page? We will then use these criteria to review our own drafts, or project abstracts, and determine what needs to be revised prior to submission. After the review, we will discuss different strategies for getting published, with a focus on how to identify and approach viable journals. In the mix, we will consider what the pop-punk spirit shares with the soul of the aspiring academic. In this context, “pop-punk” refers to a specific genre of music. More importantly, however, the term denotes an ethos of celebratory struggle; of striving to find an audience for work that embodies one’s own interests. Ultimately, we will look rejection head on, defang it, and figure out how to turn pure failure into the far more desirable failing in order to succeed. Please come with either a completed article or project abstract. Expect to leave with a revision plan geared towards enhancing the work’s chances at publication, as well as strategies for approaching journals and capitalizing on reader reviews.
