How to Contribute
The Conversation was created primarily to showcase the work of students in the Liberal Studies program of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The GC is a commuter, not a residential, campus, and the students have busy lives that inhibit their socializing with each other. Yet part of any university education is to learn from one's peers: to discover what ideas intrigue them, what paths of inquiry they are pursuing, what conclusions (if any) they reach. It is useful, too, to have some examples of student writing with which to compare one's own. As a student, one reads the magisterial work of scholars who are eminent in their fields. How does one write when one has not yet achieved that eminence? How does one adopt a voice of authority when the boundaries of one's knowledge are limited and fuzzy? Do you let the fuzzy edges show, or do you corral the discussion inside your comfort zone? Some of the student writing presented in The Conversation may serve to illustrate both approaches. The writing isn't perfect. In plain view is the struggle to discover and deliver meaning from the writer's unique perspective. We thank our contributors for giving others the example of their own hard work, the sweat of the brow.
We also invite the work of others within and without the GC community. Not everything we publish is academic. We welcome personal essays and reviews, as well as poems, stories and visual art.
For details on format and contact information, click on "How to Contribute" at the right.