Reconstructing Year One [printable version]

Two years ago, Reconstruction was in the air, a shiftless idea about what academic publishing might become. We were discomforted by what we saw as potential being shaped by those whose potential had already been realized, and depressed by the conservatism and stodginess which told us that the paths to knowledge had already been blazed by years of academic tradition. An academic environment of blazing rhetoric and high-mindedness told us that we should change the world and question authority, teasing us with buzzwords and catchphrases like "community," "differánce," "heterotopia," and "scholarly communities," but all the while telling us to limit our participation to venues which have already been established, defined, and respected -- in other words -- screwed to the floor.

One year ago, we decided to do something about it -- to take a little bit of that potential and see what we could do with it. We chased down papers and reviewers, scraped up money for server space and software, sent out our own version of spam to those we hoped might be feel the same way, and made many new friends. In our first year, because people were so ready to commit their papers to our project, we published the three issues we promised and added a fourth, never missing a deadline. Alongside our digital publication, we are putting together a series of print readers, which we anticipate to be every bit as exciting as the work we publish online. With each issue bringing better work and adding new members to our community, Reconstruction is a "success."

But that's about it.

There are many areas where there is room for improvement. First, there is the matter of the message boards. A smattering of questions and comments here and there -- but to truly exceed the limitations of the print journal -- we'll have to do much better than this. We started off saying we wanted to break down the boundary between writer and reader, letting our community take issue, ask questions, and demand answers from our contributors. We started off saying we wanted Reconstruction to be what the print journal tried to be but never could -- a testing ground for new ideas and place for scholars to grow. We had hoped that the symposia would get off the ground, and that we could pursue online debates to create new notions of authorship for scholarly publication, but have done anything but. The global exchange project is only beginning to show signs of life, but we still haven't been able to publish articles in translation. And finally, the genealogy project, which seeks to explore the infectious nature of culture has been placed on the back burner. And where the hell is the map?

Don't get me wrong, Reconstruction year one has been an enormous "success," in the sense that it is able to successfully embody the qualities of a respectable print journal. And for those of us with our backs against the wall, looking for tenure-track jobs or graduate programs, this respectability means something. But we didn't set out to be respectful or respectable.

Year one has been an exciting year that never would have been possible without the amazing support and hard work that we have found in our community. One year to put out the volume and quality of work that we have is quite an accomplishment. But year two begins today, and we must go beyond what we already have and find out if heterotopic spaces really can exist in the academic world. It's time to start taking lines of flight and seeing who we are and where we land. The Reconstruction projects need to be taken where they may. The discussion boards are smooth space to travel through. The symposia let us spread our rhizomes in soft soil. The genealogy project is an assemblage waiting to happen. Open the pages and read the journal, follow the links, and bring back maps and narratives and stories about walking through cyberspace. Reconstruction is meant to inspire. If this has not been the case, it's time to start a new journal.

Until then…
Reconstruction promises a new manifesto in every issue.

Davin Heckman