A Look at Our Previous and Future Themes
Have you ever faced or witnessed an injustice in your community? Have you ever experienced or observed bias or inequality? Have you ever wondered what you could do to improve your community? Our authors have once asked the same questions, and in their search, found our journal as a platform to address and speak out against these issues.
The Engage for Change Journal focuses on social, political, and economic issues found within the Lancaster community and surrounding area. While each published issue has a specific theme, a common thread across all issues is justice. All of our past issues can be found on our website, so go check them out here!
Our first theme, Environmental Justice, featured articles discussing environmental rights, impacts of climate change, and animals such as the egret and bees — all specific to the Susquehanna or Lancaster region. These articles emphasize the importance of these issues, urging readers to do their part to protect and help save the environment; the article “Millersville University Saves the Bees: Certified Bee Campus” by Lauren Coca abstract captures this unified goal of the journal theme:
The existence of bees is critical to the health and functioning of the planet; however, with an increasing amount of bees dying, the chance for a sustainable future is at risk. This article examines the ways in which bees impact certain variables, from the pillars of sustainability to overall environmental justice. As environmental justice continues to target marginalized groups, bees’ are affected as well, devastating populations of the most important pollinator. Conversely, this article takes an in-depth look at how Millersville University attempts to conserve bee populations and how other campuses and cities can do the same, as well as what bees mean to the Lancaster County region of Pennsylvania.
Lauren Coca
Click here to read more of this issue!
Our second theme focused on Gender Justice and included various articles centered around topics such as protecting transgender and non-binary students, feminist ideology, and the suppression of female sexuality. It also included various creative works such as poems, creative articles, and literature reviews, including one on the popular show Bridgerton and its lack of transgender and nonbinary representation by Jenna Dumbrowsky. In her article, entitled “Bridgerton’s Compliance in a Cissexist Society”, she states:
When looking at a historical context, transgender people existed long before the 21st century. In the 18th century, around the same time that Bridgerton would take place, Chevalier d’Eon was a French spy who lived as both a man and woman throughout their lifetime (Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Histories, n.d.) … If the show’s producers were concerned with historical accuracy, despite already having changed the racial representation in history, plenty of queer and transgender people existed during this period for characters to be based on.
Jenna Dumbrowsky
Click here to read more of this issue!
The Engage for Change Journal’s upcoming issue continues this trend of justice with the topic of Equity and Justice in Education. This theme has so many great articles discussing urgent and important issues that are impacting our region and its students, teachers, and faculty. Our authors discuss a variety of issues, such as sexism in education, arming teachers within schools, teacher burnout, and equitable distribution of school funding. This release includes the personal experiences of various community members and teachers who have faced and dealt with these prevalent issues.
One article written by a Millersville University graduate student focuses on the issue of arming teachers in school. They provide their own perspective and commentary on the matter in addition to detailed research into what led to this growing debate and alternative solutions to stop the issue behind it: school shootings. In their article, the author states, “This entire discussion on arming teachers is starting to feel increasingly less like a consideration in protecting students, and more like another topic of debate that further polarizes this country.” Help our authors’ voices be heard by checking out our issue on our website now.
While this issue is soon to be released and no longer accepting submissions, our next issue is! Our next topic is Mental Health and Wellbeing: Justice for All. Our call for papers will be published with our upcoming release on Equity and Justice in Education! Whether you’re a student, alumni, or faculty at Millersville University or a community member hoping to contribute to this discussion on mental health, you can submit your article to us! Curious about what we look for in our articles? Stay tuned for our next blog post, where I’ll go in-depth about the types of articles we accept and give you tips on how to make your article great!
What prominent and important issues have you found within the community? What would you love to see us focus on in the future? Tell us in the Discussion Forum! And follow our Instagram @engageforchangejournal, where you can get to know our interns and authors for our upcoming issue and learn about important dates and deadlines for upcoming call for papers and issues!
What are your thoughts about these themes? Are there any topics within them that you are especially passionate about? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for our next post!