Community and Urban Sociology

City and Community launched a new Graduate Editorial Assistants Program this year. The aim has been to expose doctoral students to academic publishing, help them to become professional evaluators of academic writing, and support them in their own work. They also received a $250 stipend for their participation.

This year, there were four doctoral students. As part of the editorial team, students have been learning how academic publishing works through seminar-like sessions with the editor and managing editor. They have helped evaluate new submissions to determine their fit and look for potential reviewers. They also meet regularly as a group to discuss academic publishing and workshop drafts of their papers.

Here are the four students and a little blurb from each one about themselves and what they’re getting out of the program:

Alex Kempler:

I am a PhD candidate in sociology at The Ohio State University broadly interested in urban and community sociology, social movements, and housing sociology. More specifically, I am interested in understanding how different groups and individuals mobilize for housing rights within an increasingly commodified housing market. As someone very new to publishing, this program has provided a meaningful look into the publication process from start to finish while also building confidence around my ability to prepare a manuscript and publish successfully. 

Angela LaScala-Gruenewald:

I am a PhD candidate in sociology at the Graduate Center (City University of New York). I study penal institutions and place with a specific interest in how organizations are influenced by and transform (reproduce or challenge) structural inequalities. As part of the City & Community Graduate Editorial Assistant Program I had the opportunity to learn about academic publishing and develop a lens for evaluating different styles of research and writing for urban sociology audiences. It is helpful to see which parts of the editorial process are more basic and routine and which require a more subjective, hands-on approach to nurture and grow the journal’s community of authors and reviewers. The program is structured so that we can engage in each aspect of the publishing pipeline which has helped me grow as a reader and writer, from evaluating manuscripts’ framings to copy editing. It’s been such a pleasure to participate in this program over the past year.

Qiyao Pan:

 “I am a Ph.D. student at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, focusing on neighborhood reputation, spatial inequality and ethnoracial disparities in New York City. The Graduate Editorial Assistant Program at City & Community has been an exceptional experience for me, and I strongly recommend it to any junior scholar. It offers first-hand editorial experience, helping me understand the academic publication process and develop my writing strategies. More importantly, it expands my knowledge and connects me with a vibrant community of urban scholars.” 

Thalia Tom: 

“I’m a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, where I study residential and school segregation, neighborhood change, and contextual effects on individual outcomes. In addition to providing valuable insight into the academic publishing process, and in particular, how urban scholarship is assessed and produced, serving as a Graduate Editorial Assistant at City & Community has introduced me to a supportive community of scholars who share similar research interests. The Graduate Editorial Assistant Program has been a wonderful professional development experience that I highly recommend to junior urban scholars.”