University Times

The Center for Race and Social Problems (CRSP), part of the School of Social Work, this week announced the launch of an academic journal, believed to be the first of its kind.

Published by Springer in both paper and electronic forms, Race and Social Problems is designed to unite scholars who previously may have been divided by fields of study, center officials said.

“This multiracial, multidisciplinary quarterly periodical will publish articles that address race and its relationship to today’s psychological, cultural and socio-economic problems,” said CRSP director and School of Social Work Dean Larry E. Davis. “Our goal is to provide an international forum for the publication of articles which address race and its enduring relationship to … problems facing our present day society.”

In addition to established scholars, the journal hopes to attract younger academicians who will address new issues and bring new perspectives, he said.

“It is also our hope that the journal will not only influence scholars, but also social policy makers by providing the best scholarly evidence and thinking available on the state of race and social problems,” Davis said.

Davis stressed that the journal is not a “black publication.”

For example, the first issue includes articles ranging from the economic plight of Mexican Americans to anti-Muslim discrimination in U.S. prisons.

“We want to enhance the potential for a cross-fertilization of ideas across disciplines, as well as among various diverse racial and ethnic groups,” Davis said at the Sept. 14 unveiling. “This is the journal I could never find, but always wanted. It reaches the various social sciences, it reaches the various social problems we face, in addition to reaching the way various racial and ethnic groups are affected by social problems disproportionally in our society,” he said.

Gary F. Koeske, professor of social work, is the journal’s editor in chief, aided by associate editor Ralph Bangs, CRSP associate director; an executive committee of Pitt and Carnegie Mellon faculty, and an editorial board of local, national and international scholars. Inquiries about manuscript submission should be sent to Koeske at gkoeske@pitt.edu.

Every fourth issue will feature a special guest editor, Davis said. Carnegie Mellon professor Alfred Blumstein will edit volume 1’s fourth issue, due out in December, on the topic of race and the criminal justice system. Davis said future special issues will be on race and mental illness, and on Hispanics.

Bangs said the first three issues include five articles each, chosen from about 55 submissions.

The journal’s first two issues are available online at www.springerlink.com/content/1867-1748. Print copies are available from Springer.

According to Arif Jamal, librarian at Pitt’s African American/Buhl Social Works Collection, the journal is not yet available to the Pitt community though the University Library System, but is expected to be in the near future.

—Peter Hart