Aspeers

aspeers () is an English-language scholarly journal in European American studies. In this field, it is the first journal to publish graduate-level contributions through a graduate-level peer-review process. The journal is located at the American Studies Leipzig Institute and is available annually in print as well as online.

AbOUT aspeers

The title reflects the project's mission. The "as" stands for American Studies, but also refers, together with the noun "peer," to the role graduate students take in the editing process—as peers.

Purpose and mission statement

aspeers serves as a platform to showcase students' work beyond college campuses, and as a forum for discussion and exchange. It thus offers graduate students the unique opportunity to publish outstanding work and get recognition for their research at an early point in their careers. aspeers thus recognizes the potential of graduate-level scholarship to energize the field of American Studies. In each issue, aspeers includes two separate sections of which only the first contains selected academic essays. Recognizing that profound discourse also occurs on less traditional levels than the scholarly essay, the second section features art contributions, such as visual art, creative writing, performance art, etc.

Staff

The editorial staff consists of MA students enrolled in the American Studies graduate program at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Annually, aspeers issues a call for submissions through various academic and non-academic channels. Employing a peer-review process in the strictest sense, all submissions are then selected and edited by MA-level graduate students.

The first issue, published in April 2008, gave a snapshot of graduate American Studies in Europe. The issue of 2009 is organized around concepts of migration and mobility.

External links

• aspeers webpage Includes full text of all issues published so far.