By M.D.A. Routledge (Submission Editor & PhD Candidate)
To say it has been eighteen months of upheaval, grief and sorrow does not adequately describe the global trauma that has been suffered. Even though, throughout the pandemic life has continued on with its’ usual strains and great joys. People have carried on working throughout, and Goldsmiths students are no different. Being separated from campus and the academic, social and pastoral support that comes along with it in many ways. Students have attended a university they have never seen let alone been able to engage in activities of student life that have become somewhat a rite of passage for many.
Throughout this time, a group of Post-Graduate Research students in the Anthropology Department have been working to create this journal. This work has taken place alongside studying, funding attempts, fieldwork, thesis write-ups, teaching and other employment. The sense of achievement in being able to pull this project together is shared by the entire team. This journal has been created in light of the difficulties faced by student and early-career anthropologists being published in established journals. Additionally, the current system for publication is long and convoluted meaning work can take years to be published. With this journal, the team are looking to test ways to streamline the process by trial and error to make the unpaid work of running an open source journal as minimal as possible and will only accept submissions from student, PGR and early career researchers as the lead author in an attempt to combat these tensions.
In this inaugural issue, we do not have a topic theme. Rather you will find work produced by Goldsmiths Anthropology Students throughout the pandemic. I list them here to highlight these students work without any exhaustive description or analysis to allow their work to speak for itself. An essay by Jordy Barlow (Y0 BA) looks at gay cruising and social media’s impact on anonymous sex, a conference paper delivered by myself (PhD) at EASA questions the need and impact of separating the practice and implications of sex, sensuality and romance, and a collaborative visual essay from Harry Rodgers (MRes) and Emily Christine Lloyd-Evans (MA) following a larger project in the department looking at Tiktok as a platform for identity recreation. Finally, we have Nena Bisceglia (Y2 BA) discussing the relationship between precarity, political action and the body.
I speak for the editorial board, and all the submitting students, when I say we greatly appreciate your support in reading our newly founded journal and hope you share it widely with your networks. Together we can ensure this continues and gains traction so student and early career anthropologists have more platforms to share their work.
