Al-Diwan brings you the latest news and analysis from the publishing and academic worlds that relate to pedagogy and knowledge production.

Publishing 

The Complete Writings of a Revolutionary
By Edward Fox (Al-Fanar Media)

For students of political history and modern Arabic literature, Ghassan Kanafani is a known figure. Not only was he the editor for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s newspaper, al-Hadaf, he was also a prolific writer of fiction. 45 years after his death, a new Arabic collection of 17 of his books is being published as a box set.

The UK’s Inclusivity Conference: Publishing Should Reflect Diverse Society
By Roger Tagholm (Publishing Perspectives)

This year was the second iteration of an “inclusivity conference” for the UK’s publishing industry. Conference hosts and attendees emphasized the importance of serving the public and how that should inform publishing practices in regards to courting different demographics and talent pools.
 

The Fallacy of Open-Access Publication
By Andrew V. Suarez and Terry McGlynn (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

While people can generally access any information that they want with a few keystrokes, academic publications, though, have not been made so accessible. Recent efforts to make research more accessible have been circumvented by private companies, and scholars face large fees to host their works on publicly accessible platforms.
 

Iraq’s female booksellers turn the page on gender roles
By Mustafa Saadoun (Al-Monitor)

Challenging the norm of male ownership over bookstores and cafes, women across Iraq are creating spaces to encourage literacy and the entrance of more women into business ventures.
 

Why Exactly is this book Obscene?
By Emily Temple (Literary Hub)

As conversations about censorship are more and more commonplace, Emily Temple attempted to pinpoint exactly what makes banned books “obscene.” Lady Chatterly, Naked Lunch, and The Catcher in the Rye are three of the books for which Temple found official classifications and rulings as to why they were deemed obscene or not.

Academia 

The Battle Over Graduate Student Labor
By Larry Catá Backer (Academe Blog)

According to Larry Catá Backer, there is now a seeming disconnect between the ultimate goals of universities and those providing the necessary labor for the school. This rift is seen through the graduate student organizing efforts across in universities such as the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University.
 

Everyone Should Care About Graduate Student Tuition Waivers
By Mary Grace B. Hébert (Inside Higher Ed) 

Amidst the shock surrounding the new GOP tax plan to target tuition waivers, people have forgotten that this is not the first time graduate students felt the burden of a new tax bill. In 1987, universities and colleges worked together on behalf of their graduate students, but today’s tax bill will need to be challenged by more than academic institutions. Mary Grace B. Herbert makes the case as to why other institutions should care about the impact such a tax would have on greater society.

Academia: Survival of the Bitterest
By Jan Klimas (Academia Obscura)

“Is survival worth the fight?” This is the question that Jan Klimas considers as he reflects on the “dance of academia.” The academic system favors those who have the greatest number of connections, which does not necessarily enable the success of the best academics.

Violence and Vulnerability in Anthropology
By Alix Johnson (Allegra Lab)

Alix Johnson looks deeply at the question of how to confront sexual violence in academia, but more specifically within anthropology fieldwork. She posits, “One source of our [anthropologists] collective reluctance [in addressing assault] is the way sexual violence raises uncomfortable questions about the fact and practice of being in the field.”