Students re-launched an undergraduate research journal on April 30 to showcase students’ research and writing talents. The journal was first published seven years ago.
“Clocks and Clouds,” a joint School of Public Affairs and School of International Service project, is entirely written and peer-reviewed by undergraduate students.
The journal was originally printed from fall 2005 to spring 2008, according to senior in SPA and Editor-In-Chief Benjamin Mainwaring from an email. However, last year, SPA Professor Kimberly Cowell-Meyers “resurrected” it.
“It has always seemed a shame to me that there was not a wider audience for the thoughtful, thorough and important research that our students produce,” Cowell-Meyers said in an email.
The journal gets its name from a quote by Karl Popper, a twentieth-century British political and social philosopher, who once said, “All clouds are clocks, even the most cloudy of clouds.”
The phrase is a metaphor in which “clouds represent the disorderly and irregular, and clocks represent the predictable and rational,” according to the journal’s page on the AU website.
All of the articles had to cover an issue in the fields of political science, international affairs, or public policy, Brian Hanson said, a senior in SPA and the journal’s managing editor.
“Clocks and Clouds” is one of a number of undergraduate research journals in the country, putting AU in a league with Boston College, Brown University, Colorado State University and others.
The journal received 29 submissions from students in College of Arts and Sciences, SPA and SIS, according to Mainwairing. Six submissions were chosen to be published in this issue.
Mainwairing and his editing staff reviewed the articles without knowing the author, and then gave advice to the authors on how they could revise their work.
“The requirements were pretty straight forward,” Rosie Romano said, a senior in SPA whose paper “Increasing Voter Turnout: Can Mass Transit Help?” appears in the issue.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for undergrads to showcase their research and learn more about how the peer-review process works,” she said.
Approximately 165 copies of the journal have been printed and are available in newsstands in Ward, SIS and Bender Library, as well as online, according to Mainwairing.
Cowell-Meyers and SIS Professor Dylan Craig are the faculty advisers for the journal.
Cowell-Meyers said she was happy to work with a dedicated group of students in bringing the journal back and looks forward to the effect it will have.
“This spring 2012 issue promises to be a landmark for the university in advancing intellectual discourse among students on campus,” Cowell-Meyers said.
rmigeed@theeagleonline.com
