As an institution, the University College of the North (UCN) is always looking to redefine what it means to be a thinking person living above the 53rd parallel.
And for nearly a decade, the school has really tried to hammer this point home through publishing their own academic articles, visual art, poetry, short fiction and culture writing.
While the latest evolution of this idea is their new student publication, Muses from the North, associate professor Sue Matheson talked to the Thompson Citizen about how this all got started with the quint, UCN’s first interdisciplinary academic journal.
When Matheson first started working for UCN back in 2006 she noticed that the school, including its campuses in Thompson and The Pas, was severely lacking in terms of original writing output.
“We didn’t have a zine or an online quarterly, and I thought it would be a good thing for UCN to see if we could launch one and keep it going.”
Thanks to the efforts of Matheson and a variety of other academics and writers, the very first issue of the quint was published in December 2008 and featured an eclectic mix of writing styles. This ranged from an analysis of renowned Canadian intellectual Marshall McLuhan to free verse poetry about the northern lights.
Even though the journal’s format would slightly change over the next 10 years, this mishmash of styles and perspectives would be one of its defining characteristics throughout.
“It seemed to us that there were a lot of really good academic articles out there … but because academic journals are pretty narrowly focused, some of them just didn’t have homes,” said Matheson. “As a result, we decided it would be a good thing to just open the doors.”
This open door policy applies to their contributors as well, since Matheson and her editorial board actively recruited writers who live outside of the north.
Not only has the quint published works from academics all across Canada, but the quarterly journal has also given a platform to scholars from Nigeria, Finland, Norway, Japan, Tunisia, the United States and many more.
While some might see this as a betrayal of the quint’s purpose −to redefine people’s understanding of the Canadian north in the 21st century −Matheson believes it actually reinforces their overall mission statement.
“The north is not cosmopolitan but I think it’s very international in a lot of ways, and this is something that I don’t see people talking about a lot.”
However, this process hasn’t been without its bumps in the road. Following the publication of the quint’s fourth volume in 2012 the editorial board’s funding was cut and they were forced to stop producing physical copies of the journal, relegating all of their content to UCN’s official website.
Thankfully, in 2017 the university’s publication output got a new lease on life when two of the quint’s regular contributors, professors Ying Kong and Joseph Atoyebi, branched off to create a student-focused journal called Muses from the North.
“Students can publish their photos, images, poetry, graphic novels, poems, and we also give a space for students to showcase their academic writing,” said Kong. “So for each of our journals we decided to take at least one sample of a student research paper.”
While the quint has always made space for a variety of perspectives, the inaugural edition of Muses from the North from the fall of 2017 put a large emphasis on Aboriginal voices, featuring pieces on Indigenous identity, sweat lodge experiences, and an interview with Thompson elder Jack Robinson.
Outside of being an intellectual pursuit, Muses from the North also serves an educational function for these students, where they get to apply their academic writing skills to a completely different environment.
Additionally, Kong and Atoyebi keep pace with these writers every step of the way to make sure that this transition goes as smoothly as possible.
“Some people didn’t have the confidence to believe that their article can be made to be publishable,” said Atoyebi. “But we had to encourage them, we had to help them surmount that fear.”
Since they are trying to follow a bi-annual release schedule, Kong said the second issue of Muses from the North is set to come out, both in print and online, sometime in May.
Meanwhile, the quint just released its second issue of the year back in March, which is available on UCN’s official website.
But no matter which publication one chooses to read, Matheson is just happy that the northern lifestyle is finally being seen in a completely different light.
“The north really isn’t something that you would find in a Jack London novel anymore,” she said. “It’s a long way from that and people spend a lot of time in the north thinking about things other than snow and muskeg.”
If you would like to submit something to the quint, you can contact Matheson at [email protected].
To find out more about Muses from the North, send your questions to Kong at [email protected].
