csuglobal is a new interdisciplinary online journal that harnesses the wealth of knowledge in the CSU—the largest in the country with 485,000 students, and 55,000 staff and faculty—on one central platform. Here, students, staff, and faculty can share original content, and access and engage with research across all campuses.
The Global Studies Institute at CSU Long Beach launched the digital publication, which aims to explore California’s increasingly global role, in May.
While its subject matter has an international reach, its foundation is local, as Cal Poly Humboldt is home to the journal’s co-founder and managing editor, Political Science Professor Alison Holmes. The University’s digital commons hosts csuglobal (with help from Kyle Morgan, Scholarly Communication Librarian), and the Art + Film Department’s Casey Vaughn serves as its graphic designer.
The publication has three sections. The first, csuglobalCA, is a current affairs ‘zine that highlights the state’s local and global connections. The second, csuglobaljournal, features original reports and studies that address domestic issues and their impacts on the world. Themes include race, gender, inequality, sustainability, food systems, and AI. Third is csuglobalaction, a teaching journal and resource that explores experiential and hands-on learning pedagogy.
csuglobal is one of the first academic journals to encourage interaction between authors and audiences, explains Holmes. The platform includes a section where readers can comment or reach out to authors directly, and another section where students contribute. For example, the csuglobalCA digest features stories that were handpacked with summaries by Holmes’ students.
“Students feel like they're involved in a way that is not necessarily what they feel when they look at most online academic journals,” she explains. “We want to hear about what they think is important and how California should engage with the world.”
The inaugural set of editors includes 17 faculty members from 13 different CSU campuses, the Global Studies Institute, and the CSU Chancellor’s Office. Holmes hopes the platform will serve to connect faculty, staff, and students across disciplines from all 23 CSU campuses.
“I want people to engage—I want them to be able to ask authors questions and get answers right there,” she says.
Making the journal accessible is one of Holmes’ guiding missions. “We are a public service, the people's university. That is what we were built to be,” she says.
Accordingly, csuglobal will have no paywall.
The inaugural edition features articles on community health, identity, study abroad programs, leadership, and more from CSU staff and faculty.
Ultimately, csuglobal aims to connect California campuses to each other, and the world—and Cal Poly Humboldt is helping connect the dots.
“The local and the global are interconnected,” says Holmes. “You cannot have light without shade, and you cannot have global without local.”
For more information, visit csuglobal at calstate.edu/csuglobal