“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus
Academic publishing is broken.
For readers, the indecipherable prose, performative literature reviews, pedantic jargon and deep-theory references – the hallmarks of academic writing – are insurmountable barriers that keep most people out of the conversation, as do the obscene financial paywalls behind which these texts are sequestered. The move towards open-access journals in recent years has helped somewhat alleviate this issue, but these journals are few are far between.
Furthermore, open-access and the elimination of paywalls is simply not enough to make academic scholarship accessible to the audiences that can benefit most from its insights. Financial accessibility means little if the scholarship accessed is unreadable and incomprehensible to the vast majority of the public.
As scholars trained in this tradition, many of us struggle under the pressures and obligations to reproduce these conventions. We feel the heavy weight of hypocrisy: the arguments against social injustice and oppressive hierarchies that motivate our scholarship and politics often have to be couched in genre conventions and published in a way that reproduces the very elitism we want to resist. We dedicate ourselves to writing articles only to endure the painful academic journal submission process in all of its obsolescent tedium; when we do get published, we know full well that only a handful of other people, mostly other academics, will read our work.
Academia can produce fascinating, brilliant, and highly relevant scholarship and critical conversations that the world, especially those of us fighting for social justice, desperately needs – but it only means so much if only a handful of people ever read it.
That’s where Ph.Dumb comes in. The mission is simple: to resist and reject the elitist echo chamber of academic publishing. Ph.Dumb is a place for scholars to share their work with a general audience – the broadest English-speaking audience possible, for the sake of more equitable and accessible access to the work done by academics in the Humanities and Social Sciences that the various gatekeeping structures of academia inhibit. It’s a place for readers to learn, and even enjoy the work of the academy unencumbered by elitist writing, university affiliation, and/or financial requirements.
Ph.Dumb will always be free. It will always be welcoming to all readers who come with an open mind & who want to learn and engage in thoughtful, respectful discourse.
The journal, which will be hosted on its own domain, is ready to launch, which means we’re ready to start accepting submissions for articles! Check out our submission deets here, and be sure to give this blog a follow for regular updates and more about the clusterfuckery that is the modern American academy.
You can also support Ph.Dumb on Patreon. Patrons receive a number of benefits, including article PDFs, early access to new articles, and behind-the-scenes looks at the submission and editing process. Once we reach our first funding goal, we’ll secure the domain name and go live!
Please feel free to message the blog or email phdumbeditor@gmail.com with any questions!
Hey Folks! I am FINALLY taking the next steps to start my alternative academic journal, Ph.Dumb! If this looks like something you’re interested in, please consider submitting for publication, supporting on Patreon, following the journal’s blog, and/or signal boosting! THANK YOU!!!
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