On Friday, November 18, MGD students had the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth Guffey, Juanita and Joseph Leff Distinguished Professor at Purchase College, State University of New York. She is also the founding editor of Design and Culture. She teaches and writes on topics of art and design history, theory, and criticism. In class we discussed the importance of publishing. We talked about what and when we should publish, the importance of these experience when it comes to landing a job.
Elizabeth gave us quite a bit of valuable advice. Presented in list form because lists are more fun to read:
- Don’t know where to publish? Look at journals you’ve used for your own research.
- Publish your thesis! But you may need to slant it to be appropriate for the journal you are submitting to.
- Practice framing your thesis into a 150-word abstract.
- Hook your ideas up into the “bigger picture”.
- Frequently send proposals to conferences and “Calls for Papers/Proposals”
- Make it relevant!
- Subscribe to ListServs
- Start small: write a book or exhibition review
- Submit to the RIGHT journal
- Carefully examine and read the top articles from specific journals and use that as a frame of reference when submitting.
Elizabeth also encouraged us to put together a taxonomy of journals. AKA a list. So while you’re visiting this blog, here’s what I got so far:
- Design and Culture
- Design History Society
- Design Research Society
- Design Studies Forum
- Journal of Design History
- Journal of Modern Craft
- Bulletins of the Serving Library
LASTLY
Elizabeth emphasized the four main qualities of Scholarly Work. Here’s one last list for you:
- Significance
- Contribution
- Doability
- Readability
Go forth, prosper, and publish your shit!