Positioning your book in a field when your work is interdisciplinary *transcript cleaned by Kaitlyn Gastineau 00:00:00:01 - 00:00:02:25 As a graduate student, I was really like, I'ma do what I want to do. 00:00:02:25 - 00:00:05:25 But now that I have to sort of have this document, 00:00:06:01 - 00:00:10:02 this book proposal document that sort of claims what fields and positions myself 00:00:10:02 - 00:00:11:06 in relationship to fields. 00:00:11:06 - 00:00:13:11 And I'm feeling some tension with that 00:00:13:11 - 00:00:16:03 and just having I guess my question is around 00:00:16:03 - 00:00:18:06 how do you negotiate that within a book proposal? 00:00:18:06 - 00:00:21:06 Is it based on specifically the press that you are 00:00:21:12 - 00:00:26:03 proposing your book project to and how you negotiate those tensions, 00:00:26:05 - 00:00:29:14 perhaps doing a bit more research on the process that you're reaching out to? 00:00:29:16 - 00:00:33:11 So, for example, 00:00:33:13 - 00:00:36:09 if you're if you have an interdisciplinary 00:00:36:09 - 00:00:39:16 project, one place to start is to look for presses that publish 00:00:39:16 - 00:00:43:04 in both of those disciplines, because then they're going to be more open 00:00:43:09 - 00:00:47:16 to projects that write, that straddle those disciplines. 00:00:47:19 - 00:00:51:25 And from an acquisitions perspective, what I'm thinking when 00:00:51:27 - 00:00:56:07 I see an interdisciplinary project is can I 00:00:56:10 - 00:01:00:10 do I have the connections to scholars in both of those 00:01:00:12 - 00:01:03:18 in both of these fields to make sure that the manuscript 00:01:03:18 - 00:01:07:09 is going to get adequately assessed from both perspectives. 00:01:07:12 - 00:01:10:24 And also, do I to put it in blunt 00:01:10:26 - 00:01:13:26 terms like, do we cater to both of these markets? 00:01:13:29 - 00:01:18:12 So, for example, MSU Press, 00:01:18:14 - 00:01:20:07 I acquire in African-American studies, 00:01:20:07 - 00:01:24:05 but we also publish in this very small subfield called Memetic studies. 00:01:24:08 - 00:01:27:05 And I was able I'm working with an author 00:01:27:05 - 00:01:32:25 who is developing a project on 00:01:32:28 - 00:01:37:26 African-American studies, but then also engages with this. 00:01:37:26 - 00:01:40:15 The Memetic studies has to do with the theories of this 00:01:40:15 - 00:01:43:24 French philosopher René Girard, and so it's very interdisciplinary. 00:01:43:24 - 00:01:48:01 But because we do publish in both of those areas, that's not a concern for us 00:01:48:07 - 00:01:52:26 because we can again, like I just said, we can cater to both of those markets. 00:01:53:03 - 00:01:56:20 We I know I'm going to be able to get feedback from scholars 00:01:56:22 - 00:01:58:24 who are experts in both of those areas. 00:01:58:24 - 00:02:00:29 And so that would be my advice. 00:02:00:29 - 00:02:06:27 I'm interested to hear what other people have to say, though, 00:02:06:29 - 00:02:09:14 and I'm also 00:02:09:14 - 00:02:12:17 thinking about who's reading it, and you're writing about that, right? 00:02:12:17 - 00:02:16:13 So I talk about how it might look like such as digital studies, such as media 00:02:16:13 - 00:02:19:13 studies, such as feminist studies, such as black studies. 00:02:19:20 - 00:02:23:00 And so I wrote that about like one of the questions they usually ask is like, 00:02:23:06 - 00:02:25:15 what classes could you see this being taught in? Right? 00:02:25:15 - 00:02:26:15 And so I would lay them out 00:02:26:15 - 00:02:29:21 like I see a graduate seminar in Feminist Ideas in chapter four. 00:02:29:29 - 00:02:34:16 I see Digital Studies Methods class using chapter two, right. 00:02:34:18 - 00:02:38:25 Like and so being that a level of specific I think shows a little bit of work 00:02:38:25 - 00:02:39:13 on your part. 00:02:39:13 - 00:02:42:23 And then also having a varied list of reviewers 00:02:42:26 - 00:02:46:14 if you can can speak across as Caitlin said, those different disciplines.