Assemblywomen is the video-journal of the Women’s Classical Committee, which is hosted on the WCC’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/WomensClassicalCommitteeUK). It provides an online, open-access platform to disseminate research about women and gender in the ancient world (broadly conceived, including receptions of women in the ancient world). The aim of the journal is to promote new research, presented in an innovative way, that will appeal to both scholars and the general public.
We are currently seeking a postgraduate student to join the editorial team for a fixed period of 12 months. The intern will work with the members of the editorial board on all aspects of the journal and be given the opportunity to take submissions from pitch through to publication, with direct support from the editorial team. This may involve soliciting pitches (through regular calls and direct contact), reading and responding to pitches, assisting in the development of ideas, organising peer-review for video essay scripts, organising captioning of finished videos, providing advice and assistance to video editing (where appropriate), and promoting the journal.
Candidates should be either working towards a PhD in classics, ancient history, archaeology or a cognate discipline or have equivalent experience in a relevant industry (e.g. junior professionals in museums, heritage, or in archaeology units) and have a research interest in women and/or gender, and an interest in promoting and upholding the aims of the WCC. All other things being equal, preference will be given to WCC members. The role description for editors is included below, the intern will be expected to work towards this role over the 12-month tenure but is not expected to undertake this role unsupervised from appointment.
About the Journal
Assemblywomen is an innovative avenue for the dissemination of research on women and gender in the ancient world published by the Women’s Classical Committee UK. The journal publishes both ‘pre-print’ and peer-reviewed work in video format on YouTube. All content is therefore open access, and available to be used in a variety of settings including in the classroom. It will present current scholarly research in an engaging and accessible way, and is therefore suitable not only for professional scholars, but also for undergraduates and a general audience. The journal presents one issue per year, with content published on a rolling basis, as soon as possible following acceptance.
The video-journal will accept three types of submission:
Video Essays. These are 10-20 minute video essays, the scripts of which will have been peer reviewed prior to filming and publication on the site
‘Work-in-Progress Shorts’. These will be 5-15 minute videos of work in progress, these are conceived as less formal as video essays and provide an opportunity for ‘pre-print’ sharing of ideas and conversations
Responses, these may either be to video essays or work in progress shorts that have been published on the site, or to wider debates within the field and will be 5-10 minutes in length
Expressions of Interest
If you are interested in applying for one of the positions please forward a brief expression of interest of no more than one page and CV to Ellie (ellie.roberts@kcl.ac.uk). Letters should include a short summary of your research interests, a statement of why you are interested in joining the editorial team, and any experience you think may be useful for the position. Some knowledge of video editing and/or YouTube will be an advantage but is not required. Informal inquiries can be directed to Ellie at the above email address.
Editor Role Description
Work with contributors, peer reviewers, and the editorial board to ensure the content of the journal reflects the breadth and depth of work on women and gender in the ancient world
Uphold a commitment to compassionate and constructive support for contributors throughout the pitch and review process
Work with contributors to refine pitches to ensure that finished videos have the highest chance of acceptance
Where necessary, commission contributions for individual videos and short series of videos with interconnected themes
Liaise with the editorial team and the steering committee of the WCC to ensure the smooth running and development of the journal
Represent the journal at conferences and workshops where appropriate, and develop the profile of the journal
Expressions of interest should be received by Monday, October 3rd.
We are thrilled to be opening Assemblywomen: the Video Journal of the Women’s Classical Committee (UK) for the first Call for Pitches. Please find further details about the journal and the types of submissions below. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at assemblywomenwcc@gmail.com with any queries you may have.
Assemblywomen is the video journal of the Women’s Classical Committee (UK).The Women’s Classical Committee was founded in 2015 in the United Kingdom with the following aims:
Support women* in classics**
Promote feminist and gender-informed perspectives in classics
Raise the profile of the study of women in antiquity and classical reception
Advance equality and diversity in classics
*By ‘women’ we include all those who self-define as women, including (if they wish) those with complex gender identities which include ‘woman’, and those who experience oppression as women.
**By ‘classics’ we understand the study of the ancient Mediterranean world and its reception, including but not limited to scholarship by students and post-holders in academic departments of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology.
Assemblywomen furthers the general aims of the WCC by providing an innovative platform for the open access publication of research on women and gender in the ancient world. We will accept submissions that focus on women, or take feminist or gender-informed approaches to the ancient Mediterranean world, work that undertakes comparatives studies between the Mediterranean world and global cultures or which examines global cultures in relation to the ancient Mediterranean. While we are actively working to create a platform in which we can accept work that does not have a connection with the Mediterranean world, at this point in time we do not have the sufficient breadth of knowledge in order to do this.
There are three types of submissions currently being accepted.
Video Essays: these are our peer reviewed submissions. These may undergo several stages of peer review depending on the submission, including review of the pitch and the final script. Video essays should present original research and be between ten and twenty minutes in length (around 2000-4000 words, depending on speech patterns).
Work in Progress Shorts: these are not peer reviewed, but undergo the same pitch development process with an editor as video essays. They should present original research, but as the name suggests this will likely be ‘work in progress’ and does not need to present firm conclusions. These should be between 5 and 15 minutes in length (1000-3000 words approximately).
Review or Response videos: These videos will vary in length but should be no longer than 15 minutes. These are videos that either:
Review a body of work (more like a review essay than the review of a single book). These may take the form of ‘state of the field’ type essays, and should make some general observations about the place of each of the books/articles/videos within the (sub)discipline more broadly).
Videos that respond to another Assemblywomen video or to an article or book. The original author will usually be given an opportunity to respond also. Please note: these are not places for criticism, but for constructive critique and/or dialogue. These may take the form of “here is another example that illustrates this point”, “this responds well to X methodology”.
The Women’s Classical Committee UK has put together this guidance to encourage colleagues putting together collaborative academic enterprises to consider how they might increase the diversity of their line-ups, and reach out to people who are currently not represented in a wide range of prestigious academic activity. This problem doesn’t just surface in classics – in 2012, Nature ran the numbers on who they were
asking to act as referees for their papers, who they were profiling, and who was writing Comment
and World View articles. They found that despite having a gender balance at the editorial and
reporting level, they were asking a significantly lower proportion of women to take on these more
visible, ‘authoritative’ tasks. This issue particularly affects graduate and early career colleagues, while established colleagues may find themselves refusing invitations sent to them because they are the only ‘visible’ woman in a given field.
‘How to Avoid a Manel and Beyond’ is designed as a straightforward and approachable guide to the issue for colleagues organising events, and for those wanting to raise issues with other colleagues in a constructive way. We encourage you to download the guidance, direct people to it, send it to people you think will benefit from it, and use it yourself.
We envisage this document as an evolving work in progress that will be updated to reflect best practice over time. If you have any thoughts or feedback, please do e-mail us at womensclassicalcommittee AT gmail DOT com.
We’d like to let you know that the 2015 edition of Cloelia, the annual publication of the Women’s Classical Caucus in the US, is now out. This edition features articles by Fiona McHardy and Susan Deacy on teaching sensitive subjects and by Helena Hoyle and Joscelyn Cole on the Classics and the New Faces of Feminism sandpit that led to the creation of the WCC UK. You can see the table of contents and read the articles over on the Caucus’ website.
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