CFP: The Student Experience

We want to present the rare chance to students to have their dissertations published as a chapter in an edited volume on university students. We are looking for dissertations with university students as the focus. These may be psychological, philosophical, sociological, economic, financial or historical in their analysis. Topics that we often see students write about students (often their own student body at their own university) include anxiety, depression, happiness, general welfare, academic success, career success, inclusivity and diversity. Of course, we welcome essays that have a more niche attention to students as well as those that employ novel or upcoming research methods. All essays will be reviewed with special attention to the methods and analysis of the research in question and, following reviews and constructive feedback, accepted essays will all adhere to academic industry standards of rigour.

Every year, students put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into their dissertation and, despite many senior academics at many institutions urging them to try to find an outlet for the publication of their dissertations, it is a crying shame that each year nothing comes of almost all of them. In conducting research on students, we have found that a great deal of research on students is conducted by students. Inspired by standpoint theory and activist/engaged scholarship, the importance of which has really begun to be emphasised over the past two decades, we thought that it would be a fascinating project, therefore, to bring student voices and student research to the fore, hopefully producing fascinating new insights into the student experience.

After collecting dissertations from around the world, an initial review will be conducted to decide which are most suitable for the volume in question, the layout of which will be determined based upon the manuscripts received. Once the layout of the book is decided, we will write a book proposal which will be sent to academic publishers for their inspection. Should one of them decide to take this fascinating project forwards, there will doubtless be a second review of the provisionally accepted manuscripts. Students will have the opportunity to revise and improve their essays and sharpen their findings with these two review processes. Those that clear both reviews will then be published and their findings given the opportunity they deserve to make the impact that they should.

We ask that all dissertations are submitted to us by the deadline of 1 September 2023 to enable us to conduct a thorough review of the manuscripts submitted. Essays should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words with an abstract of between 100 and 300 words. Slightly longer submissions may be considered but may be at a disadvantage compared to essays within the word limit. It would help speed up the review process greatly if students would submit their dissertations with (1) the grade that it achieved, (2) any comments that were made by the examiners and (3) any comments made by the dissertation supervisor. Please also include in your submission (4) the name and contact details of your dissertation supervisor, whom we may contact throughout either of the review processes, and of course (5) your name, university, year of graduation and what you studied.

Please note that we do not discriminate based upon perceived institutional prestige or upon the grade awarded to dissertations. The supervisor’s feedback and the comments on the dissertation by other examiners help us to understand the direction that they thought the essay needed to go in, which allows us to help students improve their essays where necessary to make them fit for publication as a book chapter. However, the decision to include an essay within the final book will be based entirely upon its quality (and potential quality subject to revisions) and its fit with the other topics of the essays submitted.

Submissions can be made through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/cSbXtiF5ZonM6b5A6