On 20 and 21 May 2025, CLIC had the pleasure of welcoming Brent Hayes Edwards, editor-in-chief of PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association), to the VUB for a series of events on editing, writing, and academic publishing.
Hosted in the beautiful “Glass Hall” at USquare, the events attracted humanities scholars of all seniorities both from within VUB and outside. The morning plenary session with an interview and Q&A on 20 May was interactive and wide-ranging, covering questions related to the editing process of PMLA and Edwards’ view on the history and future of academic publishing in the humanities. A valuable tip was to study the history of journals and their particular make-up.
In the afternoon, a smaller, pre-selected group of early career researchers at VUB had the chance to pitch their idea for an article to Edwards and receive professional feedback during a 4-hour workshop. Other PhD candidates, postdocs and professors could sit in on the workshop and join the discussion. Edwards provided tailored feedback and more general advice, offering a wide array of tips and tricks to the gathered PhD candidates, postdocs and ZAP members.
The afternoon lecture on 21 May provided the audience with a deeper insight into the rich history and politics of editorial work in the African diaspora. Edwards, who is also the Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University (NY), is doing research on editing as an art and practice, so that both scholarly and literary editing were discussed over the two days, giving participants a unique insight into writing, editing and publishing in different contexts.
A heartfelt thank you to Brent Hayes Edwards for this wonderful two-day event!
