Hypatia (journal)

Hypatia has its roots in regional meetings of the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP), established in 1972. One of SWIP's earliest ideas was that it would set up a philosophy journal.[6] The thought of "a journal of our own" was very powerful, according to Kathryn Morgan (Toronto), speaking in 2009 on the history of Hypatia.[5] At the time, according to Linda Martín Alcoff (CUNY), president of the Hypatia Inc. board of directors since February 2018,[7] philosophers who wanted to write about gender-related issues were being silenced in a discipline "riven by unabashed bias and vested interest, inflicting its own form of unapologetic mob violence".[8]

Azizah Y. al-Hibri, 2012

SWIP decided in 1977 to set up an editorial board to plan the journal; the first board was put together by Ann Garry (Cal State LA) and Jacqueline Thomason (UMass Amherst).[6] At a meeting in Denver in the spring of 1979, the board agreed that Azizah Y. al-Hibri (UR) should be the founding editor.[6] Al-Hibri began work on the journal in 1982, after she had completed her PhD in philosophy and just as she was starting her first year of law school.[5] The philosophy and women's studies departments at the University of Pennsylvania offered support in the form of an office and research assistance.[9] Women's Studies International Forum agreed to publish the new journal as an annual "piggy back" issue of its own, which it did for three years,[5] and distributed 10,000 brochures to its mailing list advertising it.

The group led by Al-Hibri decided that submissions would be fully reviewed and that substantive comments would be offered, rather than the usual brief rejection, to help authors improve their work and to contribute to the field's development.[8] Donna Serniak (Penn) was responsible for the first issue. It was first published independently of Women's Studies International Forum in 1986.[6]

The journal is named after Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician and philosopher who was murdered by a mob in 415 CE. Al-Hibri said that the SWIP editorial board chose the name to reflect that women have "deep roots in philosophy".[9] According to Linda López McAlister (USF), the idea for the name came from Sue Larson (Barnard) during a meeting of Eastern SWIP in 1973. Sandra Harding (UCLA), who was at the meeting, objected, thinking it awful to name a feminist-philosophy journal after a woman who had been "stoned to death for telling the truth".[10] [11]The first suggestion was Hypatia: A Journal of Philosophy and Feminism, rather than A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, because at the time it was unclear what feminist philosophy might be.[12]

Throughout Hypatia’s thirty-three-year history, the journal has been influential in legitimizing feminist philosophy within the field. It has served as one of the most pivotal sources of scholarship in feminist philosophy, both because it showcases a wide range of feminist viewpoints and because it has self-consciously addressed varied views and issues in the discipline. In an editorial statement titled “The Promise of Feminist Philosophy,” the editors note that:

Hypatia’s specific history in this regard is complex. The journal’s editors have often addressed questions of disciplinary pluralism, demographic exclusion and marginalization, and the journal’s own role in setting the agenda for feminist agitation or compliance within the academy...The special issue structure has sometimes allowed Hypatia to create space for scholars who are subjected to the most persistent forms of marginalization in the discipline, and for intersectional feminist work, even as Hypatia as a whole has been justly criticized for the underrepresentation of such work[13]....More recently, the development of Hypatia clusters (a set of two or more articles on a single theme in an open issue) offers another avenue that might be employed to highlight work that is marginalized in the larger discipline.

In 2017, Hypatia became involved in a controversy concerning the publication of an article titled, “In Defense of Transracialism,” authored by Rebecca Tuvel. Comparing the case of Caitlyn Jenner to that of Rachel Dolezal, Tuvel argued that "[s]ince we should accept transgender individuals' decisions to change sexes, we should also accept transracial individuals' decisions to change races."[14][15] Tuvel’s claims and citational practices were widely criticized within the feminist community.[16] The article also engaged in a practice commonly known as ‘deadnaming,’ i.e., “using a pre-transition name for someone instead of a post-transition one,” which is widely considered a non-affirming practice in the trans and queer community; the name was amended after publication. Some critics of the article argued that practices such as these could have been prevented by engaging with the work of trans philosophers and the substantial literature on trans philosophy.[16] Other critics have suggested that further engagement with black feminist and black feminist scholars was equally necessary.[13] The journal’s current editorial team has issued a brief guide for editors, contributors, and reviewers outlining best citational practices.[17]

Criticisms were voiced through both more official channels (for example, in an open letter to the journal) and informally on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.[18] The journal distanced itself further from the article on May 1, 2017 when a Hypatia associate editor apologized on the journal's Facebook page for the article's publication, on behalf of "a majority of the Hypatia's Board of Associated Editors".[19][20][8] The editor-in-chief, Sally Scholz (Villanova), stood by the article, and the board of directors, led by Miriam Solomon (Temple), confirmed that it would not be retracted.[21] Communication between the governing bodies of the journal were in disagreement concerning the best approach toward the article and its subsequent controversy. In July 2017 Scholz resigned as editor-in-chief, along with Shelley Wilcox, editor of Hypatia Reviews Online. Subsequently, eight of the associate editors also resigned, stating that the current controversy was "grounded in long-standing differences and tensions within the field." Following these resignations, the board of directors announced that a task force would restructure the journal's governance, and that anyone in an editorial or non-board position with Hypatia would be "required to sign a statement of adherence to guidelines issued by COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics".[22][18][23] The board subsequently appointed interim editorial team made up of Ann Garry (Interim Editor), Serene Khader (Co-editor), Alison Stone (Co-edtitor) and Rocío Zambrana (Intrerim Co-Editor beginning in the fall of 2018). Joan Woolfrey and Simon Ruchti served as Interim Editors of Hypatia Reviews Online. Maja Sidzinska served as the Managing Editor for Hypatia Reviews Online. The interim editorial team worked to maintain the journal through July 1, 2018. These teams also assisted the transition to the current editorial team. In November 2017 Sally Haslanger (MIT), Serene Khader, and Yannik Thiem (Villanova) were named as the governance task-force co-chairs.[12][24] The five-person board of directors was replaced in February 2018.[25] Linda Martín Alcoff and Kim Q. Hall, two of the associate editors who resigned in July,[26] became president of the board of directors and chair of the search committee for the new editorial team, respectively. The 2017 controversy has generated considerable scholarly reflection in debate, both within the pages of Hypatia and beyond. [FR]^[2]

In July 2017 Scholz resigned as editor-in-chief, along with Shelley Wilcox, editor of Hypatia Reviews Online. The board of directors announced that a task force would restructure the journal's governance, and that anyone in an editorial or non-board position with Hypatia would be "required to sign a statement of adherence to guidelines issued by COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics".[27][28][29] According to a statement from the associate editors, whose role was to choose the next editor, the board of directors asked them, on 17 July, to resign or the journal's governance documents would be suspended, which would remove the associate editors' influence. Eight of the associate editors resigned. In their resignation statement, they wrote that the current controversy was "grounded in long-standing differences and tensions within the field." They argued that feminist philosophy had an ethical commitment to transform philosophy into "a discipline that honors the perspectives and welcomes the scholarly contributions of historically marginalized groups, including people of color, trans* people, disabled people, and queer people."[30][31][32]

The board appointed interim editors, and in November 2017 Sally Haslanger (MIT), Serene Khader, and Yannik Thiem (Villanova) were named as the governance task-force co-chairs.[25][33][34] The five-person board of directors, including Solomon, was replaced in February 2018.[7] Linda Martín Alcoff and Kim Hall, two of the associate editors who resigned in July,[30] became president of the board of directors and chair of the search committee for the new editorial team, respectively.[7][35]

During the search for a new editorial team, the journal was targeted by a group of authors who sought to highlight what they understood as “poor scholarship in several academic fields.”[36] What has become known as the ‘Grievance Studies Affair’ targeted several journals in the humanities and social sciences, submitting articles under false identities. The article that was accepted was deliberately designed to satirize the vocabulary and practices of contemporary feminist philosophy. The fraudulent submission which was accepted, was revealed before the article could be published and never appeared in Hypatia.[37]

In October 2018, the journal published a statement critically responding to the fraudulent submissions and, whilst denouncing the breakdown of trust in knowledge production and in academic publishing, committed to “revisit[ing] our procedures to see whether we can better screen for fraud in ways that will burden neither the very authors we hope to encourage to submit their work nor the reviewers we ask to give their time to their important task.”[38] The editors further emphasized that the hoaxers had manipulated Hypatia’s publication and review practices which were intended to “encourage submissions by younger and marginalized scholars” and “to avoid placing unnecessary hurdles in the way of submitting and revising manuscripts.”[38] Other critics of the Grievance Studies affair, such as Justin Weinberg, Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina, point out that if citations and descriptions of other scholars’ work are accurate, the hoax does not reflect editorial discrepancies.[39]

Following the transition to the current editorial team in 2018, the governing bodies of Hypatia collaborated to produce a new governance document in order to facilitate open communication and procedural consistency in cases of conflict.[43] The journal also now has two standing committees, the Reparative Response Committee and the Outreach and Ethics Committee, which serves as intermediary bodies in cases where conflict resolution or intra-organizational mediation is necessary. Each committee consists of members from the Non-Profit board, the Editorial Team, and the Associate Editors. The Reparative Response Committee is specifically tasked with meeting annually to monitor the internal operations of the journal and to facilitate communication if disputes arise. The Outreach and Ethics Committee is tasked with outreach, public engagement, and ethics. It will be responsible for addressing such things as hoax submissions, and complaints from authors. It will also engage in an ongoing reflection on Hypatia’s ethical commitments, ensuring that all those involved with Hypatia are aware of, and adhere to, the COPE guidelines. This committee is also responsible for producing an annual report identifying strengths, successes, challenges, and suggestions for improvement in the journals operation.[43]

In February 2020, Hypatia’s governance boards elected a new Board of Associate Editors,[44] including:

• María del Rosario Acosta López
• Saray Ayala-Lopez
• Talia Bettcher
• Ann Cudd
• Vrinda Dalmiya
• Verónica Gago
• Dilek Huseyinzadegan
• Qrescent Mali Mason
• Krushil Watene
• Yolonda Wilson
• Robin Zheng