Introducing Plurality, a new student-run journal

As part of our Undergraduate Encounters with Feminism Series, Emmi Wilkinson explains how they came to found Plurality, a new student-run, interdisciplinary and intersectional open-access journal.

Though I’d had experience of writing for other student publications at Edinburgh, there were no journals for discussions around gender and its intersections. So, I created Plurality – a peer-reviewed, student-run, interdisciplinary and intersectional open-access journal. While there were zines, magazines and blogs which focused on intersectionality, there was no peer-reviewed journal focusing on the subject. I felt this reflected a narrative of gender and related issues being suitable for exploration in activist spaces and creative endeavors, but not in academic spaces. Of course, non-academic writing is hugely important, especially in conversations of intersectionality, because of the marginalization of women of color and working-class women from academic spaces. But Plurality filled a gap which existed at Edinburgh, and I would say also at other UK universities. We have created a space for undergraduate research – which often pushes discussions in cutting-edge ways – to be published in an academic forum.

When creating Plurality, for me intersectionality was key, to challenge the long history of white feminists ignoring how conversations of gender cannot be had without its connections to histories of colonialization, classism, ableism and transphobia. Interdisciplinarity was also key. Organising the journal more by theme, than by discipline allows readers to see the common questions happening across the scholarship, and consider how these cross-cutting discussions can expand their understanding or be taken into their own research. Illustrating how intersectionality is found across the humanities and social sciences also subverts the idea that an intersectional journal is something ‘niche’ or ‘insignificant’.

After deciding to embark upon this project, I turned to organize a wider committee for the journal. I spent my reading week in 2024 conducting interviews after reading through the 60 applications! I am lucky to have found an amazing team with which we have successfully published our first issue and are in the process of editing our second one. It has shown me the importance of community in creating change. I am truly humbled by the amazing people who volunteer their time for the publication. 

My goals with this project have been to centre the nuances needed when critically analysing positionality, and the ways in which positionalities interact. Rather than the single-axis analysis so often offered in academic spaces, as the name suggests,Plurality really is all about the plurality of the human experience. Another goal is to make academic publishing more accessible by making the submissions process responsive, to encourage first-time writers. nstead of simply giving an ‘accept’ or ‘denial’ decision, we provide a more collaborative editing process, offering multiple rounds of editing once a submission is accepted so as to allow an author to explore an idea about which they may not yet have a fully-fledged essay. This allows essays which may be very interesting, but still need some editing, to be accepted on the condition that the author is willing to work with our editors to take the piece to a high standard. Hopefully, this makes the prospect of submitting work to Plurality less intimidating for new authors. Finally, I am specifically hoping to grow the opportunities that humanities students have to build their research experiences, as the undergraduate humanities publication scene is relatively small, yet humanities students also deserve recognition for the important, provocative work they have done.

Our first issue, ‘Waves of Perception: The temporal nature of gender conception’, was published in October 2024 and you can access it from our website. It focuses on the nature of progress in society and how progress is felt at different levels throughout time, with the more marginalized within social movements often being unjustly sidelined or forgotten. We reflect on how progress, like waves, often recedes and crashes, but ultimately pushes forth. We are currently in the editing process for our second issue and we are expecting to publish in February. Finally, submissions for our third issue are currently open and we welcome any undergraduate essays with use or critique intersectionality. 

I feel proud to have built on my encounters with feminism by contributing in this way to the feminist community here at Edinburgh, and hope for the project to continue long after I have graduated.

Author biography:

Emmi Wilkinson is a four-year philosophy student, Founder and current Lead Editor of Plurality.  They are particularly interested in feminist philosophy of science and social epistemology, and are currently working on their dissertation on the philosophical validity of self-diagnosis. In their spare time, Emmi enjoys making zines and practicing karate. You can find them on Instagram @emmiwilki.