Reflections on the APA Blog
APA Blog Newsletter
October 2023
As close readers of the APA Blog know, I recently stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the Blog of the APA. I was the third Editor-in-Chief of the Blog after Lewis Powell and Skye Cleary, to whom I am indebted for their support. It’s been seven years since I began working at the Blog in 2016, though my time as Editor-in-Chief seemed to pass quickly. Now that the Blog’s new Editor-in-Chief and Beat Editors are settled in, it feels like a nice time to reflect on how the Blog has developed.
2016-2018: The Early Years
My association with the Blog began shortly after its initiation. In 2015, I saw a listing for an editor position for the recently announced Blog of the APA project. I thought the position would give me a chance to explore my interest in public philosophy. I had only recently graduated from my doctoral program and was working at my first position. While I didn’t initially get the position, I was brought on board a month or so after the launch by the then-Editor-in-Chief Lewis Powell.
What stands out most about the early years were, first, the experimental feel of the position and, second, the pressure to meet my weekly quota of three posts. At the time the Blog only had 4 editors: Lewis Powell, myself (in charge of Research and Service), Skye Cleary (Issues in Philosophy), and Jeremy Cushing (Teaching). Given the Blog’s recent beginning, all the editors were testing out ways to produce content and seeking practices that would yield interesting content regularly. One such practice was to republish philosophy-themed content from other publications (e.g., IAI.tv). Another was to cold-email people who might be interested in sharing their work. When I needed content, I emailed many people with one of two requests. If they were a younger scholar, I asked them to participate in the “Early Career Research Spotlight” series. If they were more established, I asked them to write a piece summarizing recent research. In addition, every weekend I wrote the “What Are You Reading?” posts to highlight recent research.
Personnel changes happened relatively quickly. Shortly after I joined Skye was named Managing Editor and our first copy editor (Cherie Braden) left. Not too long afterwards Jeremy moved on, leading to the Blog’s first search for a new Beat Editor. Every time there’s been such a changeover I felt like the Blog underwent a shift, as the new editor brought with them new ideas and preferred certain relationships with the other staff. Some editors preferred to operate by themselves while others enjoyed collaboration. Some sought input from others regularly while others ran their beats mostly autonomously. Some readily reached out to share ideas while others I talked to mainly at the monthly conference calls.
In late 2017 the Blog started its first series with a series editor. Previously, all series were managed by Beat Editors, and some ran inconsistently. “Black Issues in Philosophy” changed that. When Lewis Gordon contacted the Blog proposing a new series with regular content, we immediately liked the idea. As I was in charge of Diversity and Inclusion at the time, I edited these posts. Shortly afterwards, inspired by “Black Issues,” I reached out to several APA committees asking them if they’d be interested in developing a series, and from my correspondence with the Committee on the Status of Women “Women in Philosophy” was born.
By the end of 2018, the editors had a good idea of how to manage their roles and a larger network of people who could provide content.
2018-2020: Skye Cleary
When Lewis Powell left the Blog to pursue other APA Leadership roles, Skye Cleary was the obvious choice to replace him. She had been with the Blog since the beginning and was a great editor. What I remember most about Skye—besides our friendship—was the way she regularly passed along suggestions for posts. I often got brief emails from her with names or topics that could be the subject of a post. As Skye is more active on social media than I am, many of her suggestions came from content found there. Skye worked with the editors to develop more original content. While we maintained partnerships with other publications, we borrowed from them much less. Skye did several job searches and changed the editorial roles to include a social media coordinator and a Public Philosophy editor.
During this era we received more positive and negative attention. One example of the latter is the appearance of trolls in our comments section. Additionally, posts on gender-critical feminism and Jordan Peterson, among other topics, attracted controversy. Improving our professional conduct as editors became crucial, as at times our decisions were questioned. Most criticisms invoked the perennial question of where free speech ends and unjustifiable harm begins. Whenever posts were controversial, editors discussed the editorial process the post went through and developed a response plan. We revised our commenting guidelines, editor guidelines, and best practices when we saw flaws. A few times the APA was brought in for advice, and their guidance was indispensable.
Though it is painful to recall, I wrote such a controversial post near the end of Skye’s tenure. The piece was meant to promote solidarity and persistence as the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. I chose a poor headline for the piece which was meant to be provocative (“The Pandemic is a Gift,” since my argument was that we could use the challenge to better ourselves) but caused some readers undue trauma. Though I never took my responsibilities lightly, this experience is a reminder of the importance of good editorial judgment.
As I stepped into the Editor-in-Chief role in the Summer of 2020, the Blog was reaching more people.
2020-2023: My tenure
As editor-in-chief the Blog’s growth and occasional controversies continued. Yet I remember most the relationships I built during my tenure. The other editors and I agreed that developing new series was a good way to grow the Blog and increase the voices we represented. After the editors brainstormed ideas for series, individual editors recruited series editors. This increased the number of people working to produce content and the diversity of people contributing to the Blog. The downside was that the Blog did not have the resources to pay series editors. While Blog editors were honest about this fact, we were reluctant to ask too much of series editors. Some series editors found it difficult to balance this work with their other responsibilities, and on occasion a series went on hiatus as we sought replacement or additional editors.
I ran six job searches in my role as editor-in-chief. Many applicants had creative ideas to develop the Blog. I would have loved to pursue them all, but did not have the resources to do so. In a few cases applicants were offered a series editor role instead.
Early in my tenure, online publications started asking about rerunning some of our posts. We now have agreements with several publications about doing so, though the partnership I remember most is Filosophia en la Red. A Spanish-language publication, they translated our articles and linked to the English versions on our site. The editor and I corresponded occasionally about recommendations for content and best practices for editors. A few Blog editors–myself included–did interviews for Filosophia about our work and career. This experience, among others, demonstrated that the Blog has an international following. I hope that the Blog returns the favor by continuing to report on philosophical work done internationally.
While highlighting some important events in the Blog’s development and my experience as editor, this newsletter is too short to cover all that is important. There are many people, posts, and series that influenced both me and the Blog. Going forward, I hope to maintain my relationship with the Blog, starting with the Substack project. It still satisfies my desire to engage in public philosophy that motivated my application seven years ago.
If you would like to share a reflection on the Blog, please do so. You can use the Substack Notes feature.
More from the APA
From the Archive: https://blog.apaonline.org/2017/03/01/philosophy-in-the-contemporary-world-dialogue-and-demons-plato-on-the-dangers-of-normalization/
This is one of the Blog’s earlier posts on contemporary issues the public faces. It is part of a now-discontinued series called “Philosophy in the Contemporary World.” We used the series to publish pieces on current events before we had the Public Philosophy beat.
What we’re watching:
I just finished series six of Black Mirror. As with each series, I enjoyed how it encourages reflection on contemporary society. It focuses less on technology this season, spending more time on horror/fantasy themes.
News Story of the Month: https://theconversation.com/niger-ecowas-military-intervention-could-trigger-3-bad-outcomes-211549
I find the situation in Niger concerning, and this piece is a nice reflection on it. Like many I hope for the quick return to democracy, but am worried about what will happen if the parties fail to reach an agreement to do so. None of the unilateral plans I’ve heard sound like they will end without considerable damage being done to civil society. As many have pointed out, the fact that other countries (and not Gabon) have recently undergone military coups may indicate a deeper issue that needs to be dealt with.
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