Philosophy Undergraduates to Publish First Issue of New Academic Journal this Spring
February 7, 2024
Brandeis' newest undergraduate academic journal, Simpliciter, is slated for publication this spring semester, following months of planning and work by its dedicated editorial team.
Joseph Pendleton ‘24, the journal’s current President and a double-major in philosophy and environmental studies, recognized the need for a philosophy journal and club during the summer of 2023. “Brandeis has an excellent philosophy program with numerous dedicated students, but there aren't many extracurricular opportunities for undergraduate philosophy majors,” Joseph explained. To help make the journal a reality, he recruited Qiyuan Feng ‘24, a double-major in philosophy and mathematics, and Sadie Giddings ‘26, a double-major in philosophy and environmental studies, to join as Editor-in-Chief and Treasurer, respectively. Ray Xie ‘26, a double-major in philosophy and history, joined the team that same fall as the Managing Editor.
Over the course of fall semester, the team created an official student club, recruited 11 more undergraduate editors, and promoted calls for papers across a number of universities. To date, Joseph reports that the club has received 51 papers. In terms of reviewing the submissions, the process will be multi-tiered. Student editors - divided into groups of three- will review and discuss each paper, along with scoring on dimensions such as clarity, originality, and argumentative soundness. The students plan to review papers over the next several weeks, with visiting assistant professor Jordan Kokot serving as faculty advisor.
Future Plans Include Conference, Continued Collaboration with Philosophy Department
Simpliciter team has also been collaborating with the philosophy department on sponsoring events. For example, last fall they co-hosted an opportunity for undergraduate students to workshop their papers prior to submitting to other undergraduate journals. “We required that these papers not be submitted to Simpliciter, partly to prevent any conflicts of interest, but also partly because we wanted to help contribute to the broader undergraduate philosophy community by increasing other journals' submissions,” Joseph explained, “We'd like to continue to run these writing groups in future semesters.” Later this Spring semester, the club will be co-hosting a book exchange with the philosophy UDRs.
In addition to creating a journal and hosting events for philosophy majors and interested students, the club hopes to launch an annual conference in the near future. The first one, which will be virtual, is tentatively scheduled for this coming April. While a subset of the presenters is likely to include those whose work will appear in the inagural issue of the journal, Joseph emphasized that other undergraduates will be encouraged to present. “Our hope is that the conference will allow a larger number of undergraduates to share and receive feedback on their philosophical work,” he said.
Learn more about the journal and its members at simpliciterbrandeis.com.
Editor Positions for Simpliciter are Available! Simpliciter’s leadership is still looking for additional editors. Responsibilities include reading two submissions each week, meeting for discussion, and submitting scores. When the final round begins, some editors will be tasked as the “main reader,” responsible for writing the feedback that will be given to authors of both the accepted papers and those that are rejected. Interested students can anticipate a time commitment of a few hours each week, including meetings. For more information, contact Joseph Pendleton at josephpendleton@brandeis.edu.