We are officially going to launch the angLES Journal at this year’s Fourth Liberal Education Students‘ Conference (LESC) in Berlin from May 2nd-5th, 2019. Three students from the University College Freiburg are going to attend the Conference in order to promote and devlop the idea with our fellow LE students.
The angLES Journal is designed to be a trans-european, inter-university project, so we are hoping to deepen our already flourishing partnerships and form new ones at the Conference.
Below you can find our proposal that we submitted in February of this year for the LESC, when angLES was little more than an idea:
4th Liberal Education Student Conference
Proposal
Students at UCF are currently preparing to set up a student-run, peer reviewed Liberal education Journal, designed to give European LAS students an initial platform for publication of their writings on their topics of academic inquiry. In our contribution for the LESC, we would like to reflect on the journal as a platform to enhance collaboration between liberal education communities throughout Europe and to present interdisciplinary studies to the world at large. As the LESC annually gathers highly motivated and active LE students from all over the continent, presenting the “angLES” journal at the conference would be a unique opportunity to bring the concept to life. In this proposal we are going to present some of the foundational thoughts and possible effects of the journal
Having experienced the enriching discussions about pressing global issues and the role of liberal education in addressing them at various conferences, we would like to foster and facilitate ongoing communication between LE students that will not be limited to a single date in the year. By making this exchange public, we would contribute to representing Liberal education values – such as interdisciplinarity, creativity, critical thinking, skilled communication, and intellectual discovery – to the world at large. Through peer-reviewing, we want to ensure a high academic standard of the contributions in the journal to show the value of LE as an educational approach. As an interdisciplinary approach of liberal education can be applied in addressing global concerns, our journal could additionally present LE in the context of policy-making.
Effects of this journal would entail not only more effective communication and increased flow of ideas, but additionally it would give undergraduate students the rare possibility to be published within an academic context. Experiences such as this spark a plethora of advantages: the individuals receive feedback on their work and it provides a starting point to publish academic texts in a professional atmosphere and experience the respect that comes with it. The community benefits from the contributions, which allows for increased inspiration and motivation for new works, overall generating valuable intellectual resources within LE. As communication is one of the keystones of LE, connecting students of different interests, backgrounds, and strengths is of the highest importance in LE community. Our journal, therefore, creates an opportunity for experiencing diverse methods and ideas and profiting from the diversity of perspectives of LE students.
By launching this journal, we would overcome the physical distance barriers which separate LE students, therefore, making use of technology to come closer to each other and engage in a flow of ideas, creating a general sense of awareness. Awareness is key in an ever-changing world as we have seen in discussion concerning worldly issues and in working together collaboratively. Thus, the journal will be a crucial part of the process of connecting LE students today and preparing them for the world of tomorrow.
angLES Journal 