By: RACHAEL PITTMAN
Staff Writer
@ralypitt
While the conference had four undergraduate journals this year, there was also a graduate journal of interdisciplinary projects from graduate students, the IU South Bend Graduate Research Journal.
Co-editors Stephanie Foreman and Brandi David had been working since the July to get this project started. This is only the second year for this publication.
Foreman was the editor for the first edition of this publication. “We need an outlet for grad students… not many other places to show,” Foreman said. She also talked about the influence this publication has on undergraduates, to let them see what kind of work they are doing and hopefully inspire students to go back for a graduate degree.
“The fall we started full swing,” said David, and “most of work is done in the spring.” While it has been hard work and they were busy getting everything ready, David said that both she and Foreman had “a lot of fun.” David personally was up by 4 a.m. the day of the conference. She was beaming with excitement. Foreman was visibly excited as well, but it seemed to be attributed to her new baby boy. She was holding him in blue swaddling.
“Thankfully, I’m only working on my thesis right now,” Foreman said. “You think you are sleep deprived as a college student, wait until you have a kid.” She knew her baby would be due around the conference date, so she got some help from David. “She had been wanting to help,” and also said her talent with Indesign was one of the things that Foreman was not personally capable of.
What makes this journal unique from the others is the interdisciplinary nature of it, which includes mostly writing from English majors, which David said is due to all the English papers that were written. This year, an unusual exception, there are creative works.
Guest poets select works and name award winners and then give the names to the university. This year, Alan Peterson granted the English Graduate Writing Award winning poem to “Shaken and Stirred” by Kristiane Weeks. David also pointed out a “beautiful personal essay” by Anette Schinizzi titled “Hunger.” A reader might miss it because it is only three pages.
David was also published in Analecta twice before taking on this project.
This journal will be put online as a PDF, but David said the date for that release isn’t set yet.
