This part of the website is dedicated to creating a resource on alternative or rogue academia. This is academia without paywalls, ideally without precarity, where things happen differently from the neoliberal spaces of the university. This includes looking at the open-source publishing movement.

At present we are collating a list of different lists and resources and websites, and hope to pull together an our first online event on the first Alternative Academia Movement later this year. If you have any resources you would like to contribute to this website please contact: heather@magneticideals.org

Alternative Academic Movements

alt-ac is both a counterpoint to the current state of academia, and support for those academics suffering under it. The term ‘alternative academia’ refers to alternatives to traditional research, alternative ways of pursuing research, and alternative spaces in which research occurs https://www.alt-ac.uk/

Open Source Publishing

• the Open Humanities Press (see here: https://openhumanitiespress.org/) who have published some outstanding work and are one of the earliest entrants into OA book publishing. They have specialised in politically leftist and critical theory titles, which would make them a good fit for you I think. They don’t charge a fee.

• Open Book Publishers (see here: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/), who also don’t charge a fee. Martin Eve published one of his books with them and rates them very highly – and the book is much more widely cited than some of his other work, as a result.

• MIT Press have a new OA programme recently launched (see here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/mit-press-open). Not sure yet whether there are author fees involved, but they’ve been committed to OA publishing for a long time now.

• Punctum Books (see here: https://punctumbooks.com/) is a great independent option, who tend also to pick up political titles for their OA books lists. Again, no author fees.

• the UCL Press (see here: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/) who have quickly established themselves in a very strong position. They would ask for a fee (they only cover the costs of their own staff at UCL publishing OA books). Last time I checked the Book Processing Charge (BPC) was around £5,000 which is very reasonable compared with other “legacy” publishers.

With thanks to Dr Caroline Edwards to her input to the above section on Open Accesss

Public University Movements

Academics for Public Universities: We are a group of academic researchers from different Australian Universities. We are focusing on the current crisis faced by the Australian Public Universities. Through our collective work, we aim to contribute to a meaningful solution to this crisis. https://publicuniversities.org/

Council for Defence of British Universities believe Universities in the UK are under threat. A series of reforms has made universities more like businesses, subject to market forces. We believe that these changes to the way universities operate and are governed pose a risk to a university’s central function, which is to gather knowledge, free from interference, and to educate people in the skills they need to think critically and independently. http://cdbu.org.uk/

Publications

Higgins, S., & Daniels, M. (2015). Alternative Academics: Moving beyond the Academy. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 3(3), 238-246. doi:10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.3.3.0238 – https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.sussex.ac.uk/stable/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.3.3.0238#metadata_info_tab_contents

Podcasts

Kate Tomas on Women’s Spiritual Empowerment and the Failings of Academia – Living Philosophy. Accessed 11 August 2021. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1583434/7879387-kate-tomas-on-women-s-spiritual-empowerment-and-the-failings-of-academia