New Perspectives on Academic Writing: The Thing That Wouldn’t Die

Particularly for the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, for which writing is their lifeblood, the crisis in academic writing has become existential. It is not hard to diagnose the disease, and its causes. This book showcases what we desperately need: radical alternatives, experiments we can try out, ways of writing that don’t just tweak the system but plot a different course altogether. This isn’t just about finding new genres, for these only change the surface appearance without altering the underlying dynamic. Rather, the editor and contributors focus on finding new ways to join thinking both with writing and the things of which, and with which, we write. Each chapter brims with the kind of liveliness, outspokenness and urgency that their theme demands. Far from tiptoeing around the edifice of academia they are intent on stirring things up, reigniting their scholarship with a fuse of activism, in the hope of setting off an explosion that could send ripples throughout the academy.

Bernd Herzogenrath is Professor of American Studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.