Hi future and past MAPHers!
This summer I got to intern with Critical Inquiry, a peer-reviewed, critical theory-driven academic journal, published by the University of Chicago Press. I was most excited to experience publishing on the Journal side of the Press, having worked in Acquisitions in the Books department throughout the year. This internship has given me insight into the nitty-gritty, ins and outs of academic publishing, and has been an eye-opening experience into the day-to-day agenda for editors of the journal. The staff is small and intimate, composed of Jay and Hank primarily, with several graduate students to help manage editing the 8-10 article-range published in each issue. Both are delightful iconoclasts, eager to engage in stylistic debates over lunch, all-the-while dedicating themselves to producing the best journal possible.
My main responsibility was fact-checking the articles in order to ensure any quotations were cited correctly, and that the endnotes were in proper Chicago Manual Style. For those of us who have written papers, this process will sound familiar. Any future MAPHers about to experience the thesis-writing process, this task can more whimsically be described as a textual scavenger hunt- all you need is a sharp pair of eyes and a dedication to detail-oriented practices. I also got to help edit pages, which are articles that are soon-to-be-published. The content is produced by some of the finest minds in their respective academic fields, and it was thrilling to get a firsthand read of their material.
While MAPH instilled in me the thrill-seeking attitude needed to dig through online publications and scour the library stacks to find original texts to fact-check against, the CI internship was my first real experience working with CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), as, coming from an English background, MLA was my go-to citation choice. The CI summer internship gave me a comprehensive tour into the world of academic publishing, specifically publishing a journal, and it really sharpened my editing skills for the better! This internship is a great chance to learn more about publishing at one of the finest universities.
– Madeleine Michaelides ’16
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