Hi all,

I know I may be preaching to the choir, but it just seems absurdly ironic that a "case for colonialism" was recently made just for us to witness the devastating effects U.S. colonialism is causing in Puerto Rico right now. The entire colonial infrastructure is preventing aid from entering the island and the Kafkian governance structure (between local, state, and federal governments) is making it impossible to distribute the supplies that are already in Puerto Rico's ports and airports. People are starving, running out of fresh water, and must withstand hours, if not days, of anxiety to fill their tanks with oil. As a result, people are trapped in their houses with no resources to feed themselves. The U.S. military is roaming the streets to provide a semblance of order, while the President went public to assure bondholders that Puerto Rico's debt will be "dealt with" regardless of the circumstances.

I urge this list to look past journal politics. Colonialism must be dismantled, and creating non-profit journals, or publishing in open access venues won't be enough. The first item in the agenda is ensuring that the U.S. exempts Puerto Rico from the Jones Act of 1917, an archaic colonial law which prevents non-U.S. vessels from delivering cargo in the island. Right now, aid is ready to be delivered to Puerto Rico from Cuba, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and many other Caribbean neighbors, but unless it is transferred to a U.S. vessel in, say, Florida, that aid will never reach those in desperate need.

In solidarity,

Joaquin

On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 4:37 PM, sean baughn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I am not a geographer, but a US based High School geography teacher who uses this list to become educated on critical approaches to geography. I do not have the geographic expertise to add to this discussion, but wanted to voice myysupport to the actions taken around this issue. Critical positions in support of social justice at the highest levels of academia will, eventually, drive basic texts(and their publishers) in a more progressive direction and help frame the pedagogy of high school teachers. It is encouraging to see the courageous and thoughtful actions taken by the scholars involved in this issue.

Thanks,

Sean Baughn

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 4:42 PM, Batterbury, Simon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The obvious next step is to now 'flip' the journal back to academic ownership, as Sir Tim Gowers, the originator the the "Academic Spring", now recommends. For about $1000 the Board can reassemble such a journal under a new name, independently or with a small publisher. They would never allow a Gilley episode. Why, oh why, are critical social scientists still publishing the majority of their work with the "big five" publishers? Human geographers: look down the list of "top" journals, and ask yourselves where the profits are going. This issue has snuck up on us, and it is not pretty. Take publishing back. As his last point below says.
Gowers https://gowers.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/another-journal-flips/

He says" There is widespread (even if not universal) agreement that something is deeply wrong with the current system of academic publishing. The basic point, which has been made innumerable times by innumerable people, is that the really hard parts — the writing of papers, and the peer review and selection of the ones to publish — are done voluntarily by academics, and modern technology makes things like typesetting and dissemination extremely cheap. And yet publishers are making more money than ever before. They do this by insisting that we give them ownership of the content we produce ... What can be done about this? There are many actions, none of which are likely to be sufficient to bring about major change on their own, but which in combination will help to get us to a tipping point. In no particular order, here are some of them.

Create new journals that operate much more cheaply and wait for them to become established.
Persuade libraries not to agree to Big Deals with the big publishers.
Refuse to publish with, write for, or edit for, the big publishers.
Make sure all your work is freely available online.
Encourage journals that are supporting the big publishers to leave those publishers and set up in a cheaper and fairer way.

etc.

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2017 22:24:47 +0800
From: Tracey Skelton <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: "The case for colonialism", any response from twq yet?

Dear Farhana,

I have watched this discussion closely and I personally know several members of the editorial board who resigned. I know that many of them are deeply committed to TWQ and have been committed to their roles and the scholarship of the journal. So to resign has been a difficult but important decision.

It is clear now that we have all been lied to by the editor and this ridiculous piece of writing somehow got published. Personally I will not engage with TWQ in any way until there is a resolution of the kind the editorial board resignees and other participants in this debate have requested. How can we trust such a journal and such an editor?

I also wanted to write to you, yourself Farhana, to applaud all the work and energy you have to put into this awful situation. I have read your eloquent contributions and I totally agree with your arguments. I am very glad that there are people like you who are observant, dedicated and practitioners of accurate, warranted and truthful scholarship.
Thank you for your energy and commitment. I hope one day I can meet you in person to express my respect.

Sincerely to all those politically aware and vigilant scholars who defend the commitment to social justice in all its guises,

Tracey Skelton

Prof. Simon Batterbury

Joaquín Villanueva
Assistant Professor
Geography Department
Gustavus Adolphus College
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