New Peer-Reviewed Journal on Literacy, 'The Sandbox,' Launched by U of A's Brown Chair

Braxton Kocher/Bandt Agency

The cover of the inaugural issue of "The Sandbox: Short Papers, Big Ideas on Literacy and Learning," a new peer-reviewed journal created by the Brown Chair in English Literacy's signature program, the Community Literacies Collaboratory.

The Community Literacies Collaboratory, the signature program of the university's Brown Chair in English Literacy, today launches the publication of its new scholarly peer-reviewed digital journal, The Sandbox: Short Papers, Big Ideas on Literacies and Learning. The journal will be published three times a year — in winter, summer and fall — in both digital and print formats. You can read the full inaugural issue of The Sandbox here.

Contributions published in The Sandbox, as informed by research, scholarship and pedagogy as the very best of academic journals, also diverges to make scholarly perspectives accessible to audiences of both nonacademic and academic literacies stakeholders through short critical essays on timely issues in the world of literacy advocacy and studies, linguistic and disability justice, education and policy. The journal invites everyone from undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, to librarians, parents, activists, organizers and policymakers, to see the journal as a platform where they might make visible their passions, concerns, hopes and dreams about literacy and learning today.

The editorial team consists of:

• Eric Darnell Pritchard, Brown Chair, associate professor of English and director of the Community Literacies Collaboratory;
• Jami Padgett, graduate assistant to the Brown Chair and M.F.A. student in poetry at the U of A;
• Jackie Chicalese, graduate assistant to the Brown Chair and a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Composition Program at the University of Nebraska;
• Braxton Kocher of Bandt Agency, web designer and accessibility consultant.

In their capacity as the CLC Advisory Board, its members serve as editorial board to The Sandbox. 

Inaugural Essays

The inaugural issue features four original essays by literacy, rhetoric and composition scholars:

• Ada Hubrig's "More than Accessibility: A Call for Disability Literacy";
• Gabrielle Isabel Kelenyi's "Participatory Pedagogies: An Approach to Meeting the Needs and Elevating the Desires of Adult Undergraduate Writers";
• Molly Ryan's "Stepping Outside the (Straight) Box: Queering Literacy in the First Year Writing Classroom";
• And the essay "When Robots Come Home to Roost: The Differing Fates of Black Language, Hyper-Standardization, and White Robotic School Writing (Yes, ChatGPT and His AI Cousins)" by award-winning community literacies scholar and longtime educator Carmen Kynard, the Lillian Radford Chair at Texas Christian University and a member of the CLC's Advisory Board. Kynard's contribution was initially published on her popular blog, "Education, Liberation & Black Radical Traditions for the 21st Century."

Each original essay contribution underwent scholarly peer review including anonymous peer review with feedback toward revision and resubmission, followed by another round of review and copyediting before acceptance for publication. To honor the intellectual labor and the time it takes to participate in the editorial process, authors of writing accepted for publication in The Sandbox are provided a generous honorarium. The digital issue follows best practices of access: providing an audio recorded version of all essays as well as alternate texts for all images. A print version of the publication will follow in spring and will be mailed free of charge to all who subscribe. Information on how to subscribe for the print edition is forthcoming in a future issue of the Community Literacies Collaboratory's monthly newsletter. 

Pitches and submissions to The Sandbox are accepted on a rolling basis. If you are interested in contributing an essay, policy report, book review, review essay or other item for publication in The Sandbox, please send an email with your pitch to the CLC staff at brownchairinenglishliteracy@gmail.com with the subject line "Pitch for Sandbox" or "Submission to The Sandbox."

You can check out the inaugural issue of The Sandbox here. The next issue will be published in July 2024.