Professors here on DePauw's campus have decided to take up arms against the old adage stating, "those who can't do, teach."
As part of an ongoing attempt to convince the world that it is possible to both "do" and "teach," university faculty are actively engaging in intellectual communities far outside the classroom.
At the forefront of this battle are three DePauw professors who work as editors of peer-reviewed scholarly journals, two of which were founded here on campus.
Modern languages professor Arthur Evans is regarded by his colleagues as an inspiration and "parental figure" in paving the path of such scholarly work on campus.
In 1991, he brought "Science Fiction Studies" to DePauw. While the publication originally began in 1972, Evans brought "SFS" to DePauw in an attempt keep it alive when its government grant was lost.
Evan worked with Fred Silander, the university's vice president of finance at the time, to come up with a deal that would make DePauw the new home for "Science Fiction Studies." The university offered Evans, the current editor and publisher, $6,000 per year.
"That pays for postage and office supplies," Evans said, "but we can do it for that."
Since then, the budget has remained the same, but the journal itself has grown and evolved throughout the years. It is now regarded around the world as "the most respected journal for the critical study of science fiction" and "the most theoretical scholarly publication in the field, as well as the most daring," (Courtesy of online reviews of "Science Fiction Studies").
With its reputation to uphold and a publishing rate of only three times a year, SFS has very low acceptance rates when it comes to submissions from would-be authors.
"Our acceptance rate each year averages between 35-40 percent," Evan said. "We have a very stringent procedure authors must follow in order for their article to be accepted."
Professor Istvan Csicsery-Ronay of the English department has worked as a co-editor with Evans for many years and is responsible for bringing "Science Fiction Studies" to the web.
Though he still works as an editor for "SFS," Csicsery-Ronay has now branched off to create his own scholarly journal, "Humanimalia."
This journal contains works of scholarship on human-animal studies, and "Humanimalia" is is now considered one of the top three journals in the world within this field.
Unlike Evans and "SFS," the only support Csicsery-Ronay receives from DePauw is the bandwidth. Despite the insistence of many publishers that publications should be bought and paid for, Csicery-Ronay has chosen to publish the journal as free and open-access. This means that anyone in the world who has an Internet connection and knows the English language can view the publication.
These journals and the professors responsible for them have gone a long way toward putting DePauw University on the map.
"There are people who had never heard of DePauw before "SFS" and "Humanimalia" crossed their fields of consciousness," Csicsery-Ronay said.
"There really are thousands of scholars and students whose first exposure to DePauw has been through these journals," he continued.
Evans feels this connection between the university and the wider community as well. Little do the readers of his highly respected publication know that the nuts and bolts of the entire process take place in a dorm-sized office and that this university does not offer a science fiction program.
Though DePauw has not yet entered these fields, both science fiction and human-animal interaction are booming areas of study -something that Csicsery-Ronay and Evans never expected when they began their work.
"This is something that is entering into our social reality and the way that we live our daily lives," Evans said. "It's something that we are living on a day-to-day basis."
Professor of Music Matthew Balensuela, the founder and editor-in-chief of "The Journal of Music History Pedagogy," feels he is in good company amongst his fellow professors and editors.
He began "The Journal of Music History Pedagogy" in 2010. It is the first journal devoted to pedagogy in the profession and, like its predecessors here at DePauw, it is open-access.
Balensuela, who receives submissions from scholars across the United States, likes that he is able to connect with and reach out to people outside of the DePauw community.
"I think faculty can be stuck in 'the bubble' just as much as students," Balensuela said. "And this is a way for me to be in touch with people all over the country."
Published by the American Musicological Society, "JMHP" comes out with a new issue two times each year. Articles on reports, practices and varying philosophies can be found in the journal as well as book reviews and round tables, which are published in a PDF format.
Balensuela said that even though he doesn't teach this topic in particular, "JHMP" helps keep him in touch. He believes that overall, his work with the journal helps make him a better teacher and that his students benefit from that.
Csicsery-Ronay agreed, stating,"the more a teacher is involved in the dynamic growth of his or her field the more that comes into the classroom. It means that it's always fresh."
He added, "It means students are no longer learning stuff that's not taken seriously in the academic community. It means that the classroom itself is more up to date."
All three professors stressed that it is completely unheard of for a small school like DePauw to be a home to three such highly regarded academic publications.
"It's extremely rare," Evans noted, "it's almost always large research universities like IU that have a dozen scholarly journals. It's a real credit to this university."
Csicsery-Ronay is of the same opinion.
He said that in this way, "the university becomes associated with cutting edge scholarship, and it becomes widely known in the scholarly community."
These professors believe that the journals help make this university both reputable and competitive.
"It's really incredible that a school this size has something as quirky as "Humanimalia," something as long-term and foresightful as "SFS" and something so teaching-based and reflective of pedagogy as "JMHP," said Balensuela.
Through their journals, these three have extended their influence and scholarship far beyond this campus and have gone a long way toward proving that DePauw's professors both teach and do.
