Arts students: are you tired of having science students treat your creative work as futile? Science students: do you wish that arts students would stop putting out publications that only present issues in exaggeratedly emotional ? You aren’t the only ones.
New to the Queen’s community is a publication entitled Syndicus. Unlike other magazines and periodicals, Syndicus strives to unite the abilities of the arts and sciences in an exploration of social issues pertinent to all university students.
“University is composed of a great number of disciplines,” said James Nicholson, the magazine’s editor in chief in a recent interview with the Journal. “We want to use the resources of the University and draw on the expertise of all students.”
With so many resources available, university life truly is a unique centre of awareness where sharing ideas between disciplines is an everyday occurrence. Nicholson, along with co-founder and associate editor David Shulman, wanted to harness this sentiment in their publication.
The name Syndicus is a derivative of the ancient Greek word syndic, which means to be an agent—or loose network of agents—representative of a university.
“We were looking for a name that has to do with the purpose we wanted to achieve,” Nicholson said. “On one hand it’s representative of intellectual debate, [and] in another sense a loose network of disciplines.”
The marriage of research and creative expression created by Syndicus is not only representative of Queen’s students, but promises to take the discussion of academic issues to the next level.
The idea came to Nicholson and Shulman last year.
“We wanted to write a certain type of article, but couldn’t find a venue for it,” Nicholson said. With no previous publication experience, and a grant from a Queen’s alumnus, they set about creating the sort of forum they had imagined. Syndicus is a magazine that is organized by topic—the first volume being about democracy and the recent Volume Two centering on prenatal life. Through the use of various media, such as poetry, visual art, research-based essays, graphs, maps, statistics, and even film reviews, students can explore one topic through many different lenses.
“A given theme can be expressed in many different ways, such as written arguments and creative writing. If you represent all things in various ways, the reader can get a more complete idea of the issues at hand,” said Nicholson.
Yet, varied as they were in form, many articles were repetitive, merely skimming the surface of the issue. Instead of ionate debates from opposing sides, articles stuck to facts, thereby avoiding any political stance.
While Nicholson and Shulman said they were not opposed to opinion pieces, they added they both prefer research. As a publication taking on the responsibility of representing the ideas of university students, this may be a major drawback.
Luckily, this power to voice opinions lies in the hands of Queen’s students, who are the force behind the finished product. The ability to have your opinion heard is subject to your willingness to express it in your chosen form with as much clarity and integrity as possible. And, of course, research is key too.
The publication in its current state does much to factually inform readers of the concerns and consequences surrounding prenatal life. Abortion legislation, stem cell research, birth control methods, cloning, and even some scientists’ beliefs about in utero experiences are among the topics presented. With all of this information, readers are given the possibility of creating their own informed opinions about issues, if not to read the opinions of others.
“Food for Thought,” found at the end of the magazine, listed various moral and ethical questions surrounding prenatal life. Not only was this interesting, but it was an excellent tool that I later used to spark discussion of the topic with my peers—something Nicholson seems to think Queen’s students are already comfortable doing.
“[The birth of Syndicus] is an indication that they are already interested in intellectual discussion, indicating that it can be done outside of a classroom setting,” he said.
“Ideally, we want Syndicus to become a permanent feature of the Queen’s campus,” Nicholson said.
For this reason, it seems evident that an academic publication of this sort will not only be well received by Queen’s but may have a concrete future as something that is uniquely ours.
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