Editorial Board Values

As an exclusively digital publication, the Spark Magazine is uniquely positioned at the intersection of academic journals and public magazines. Written by diversity scholars, Spark essays are grounded in research and scholarship and publicly accessible to inform public discourse, policy, and practice.

Throughout the production process the Spark editorial board adopts a social justice approach and aims to:

1. Increase accessibility of scholarship to dispel myths about the academy and combat the growing wave of anti-intellectualism;
2. Highlight diverse content to address and forefront the intersectional nature of social inequalities;
3. Encourage authors to build their public scholar identity and explore writing techniques that honor their lived experiences and that of their communities;
4. Avoid a top-down approaches to the editorial process that only permit the existence of certain types of writing or writers; and
5. Remain consistently aware of the implications of writing publicly, especially for those who write about communities with which they identify.

We learn from and collaborate with our writers at every stage, working with those with a range of experiences and abilities. We are not gatekeepers who seek to conform to traditional academic standards and we do not define our success based on our rejection rate. We provide authors editorial support in crafting essays that are true to writers’ intent, broadly accessible, and grounded in scholarship.

We look forward to working with writers who share these values.