This semester, students from the philosophy and theology honoraries published a collection of papers submitted by Hillsdale students. “Agora: Reason and Responsibility,” compiled by the philosophy and religion honoraries according to senior Editor-in-Chief Michael Pope, will be released electronically for its first edition over Christmas break, but future versions will be produced as paper copies.
Pope requested paper submissions at least 10 pages in length. Philosophy and theology were the most common topics, and the journal editors expected contributors to focus on making a claim.
“The papers need to make arguments that are broadly philosophical or religious,” Pope said.
The journal is open to students from all majors, and Pope hopes to expand conversation on campus by bringing in other fields of study. The main goal of the project, however, is not to recognize academic achievement, but to promote good scholarship.
“It provides kind of a unique experience for students to do good scholarship and practice editing,” Pope said.
The journal is entirely run by students, with an editorial board including seniors Garrett West, Julia DeLapp, Rachel Zolinski, and Matt O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan explained that as secretary he sends emails to writers to notify them of their deadlines and helps Pope find articles worth publishing in the journal.
“I work with several other editors to find papers that match what we are looking for and then analyze grammar and content,” Zolinski said.
The editors ask that students submitting work from class edit their papers to make sense to a general audience. This enables the journal to require very little context or outside knowledge for readers to understand it.
Pope said the journal’s greatest hurdle has been a lack of quality material. Few of the submissions met the editors’ standards for argumentation, and they were reluctant to fill in the extra space with their own papers. Pope’s vision for expanding the journal requires increased participation.
Pope plans to publish the journal each semester, and also expand the project outside the Hillsdale student body.
“We’re hoping to incorporate a student conference with a keynote speaker,” he said.
The editors also considered the possibility of including writings from other schools because it would increase the project’s size and scope of influence. Pope said that it could become a national journal, but he wanted to get the organizational parts settled first.
