Call for Applications: Digital Editor Position
The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal (SHAD), published by the University of Chicago Press, is seeking a Digital Editor with a primary responsibility of co-managing its associated scholarly blog, Points. The Digital Editor has an opportunity to shape our field by curating the content of a widely read blog and creatively building synergies between the blog and the journal of record in the field. In addition to encouraging submissions to SHAD and Points, the Digital Editor will co-manage a team of contributing editors who write regularly for the blog and will oversee the progress of posts from the time they are submitted through publication. The Digital Editor is responsible for substantive editing of a post (when required), generating content that links SHAD and Points, and maintaining the production schedule. The Digital Editor will also solicit timely posts, from contributing editors or others, in response to relevant contemporary news. The Digital Editor, who must be a member of the Alcohol and Drug History Society, has final responsibility for all blog content. The position will be filled by March 1, 2021.
SHAD publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed original academic research, reflection essays, and reviews in the field of alcohol and drug history, broadly construed. SHAD publishes under the auspices of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS) twice annually. The Points blog was established in 2009 and will be jointly administered by ADHS and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. AIHP also publishes History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, a University of Wisconsin Press journal.
SHAD has limited funds to support Points. So that these funds can be reserved for paying contributing editors, the Digital Editor position will be unpaid. We thus expect that it will be filled by a scholar with a regular academic position. The Digital Editor should receive enough release time from their employer to ensure that they have sufficient time to carry out their duties, which amounts to roughly 2-3 hours per week.
The ideal Digital Editor will:
Have a clear, directed ambition to (a) have an impact on the field of drug, alcohol, and pharmaceutical history, and (b) help the field have a public impact on debate and policy;
Be intellectually nimble and temperamentally suited for the pace, rhythms, and culture of social media and
Be able to manage others (contributing editors).
Familiarity with WordPress is helpful but not necessary.
Applications submitted to shad@press.uchicago.edu should include:
1-page discussion of the applicant’s vision for Points and how it can creatively build on and improve the blog’s relationship with SHAD;
2-page curriculum vitae; and
1-page max statement about the applicant’s demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.