Three Graduate Center political science faculty members were named co-editors of Polity, the journal of the Northeastern Political Science Association. Polity ranks among the top 15 U.S.-based journals in political science. Professors Alyson Cole (GC/Queens, Political Science); Robyn Marasco (GC/Hunter, Political Science), and Charles Tien (GC/Hunter, Political Science) began their new roles this month. It is the first time that the journal has had three chief editors. The trio will publish their first issue in January 2021.

“We are all co-editors, thereby undermining the usual hierarchy of editor/associate editors, and triangulating the labor,” said Cole, who is also the executive officer of The Graduate Center’s Ph.D./M.A. program in political science. “Having three co-editors in chief is critical to the sort of work we want to undertake — our commitment to diversity, plurality, and collectivity starts at the top.”

In its announcement, the Northeastern Political Science Association noted that Cole, Marasco, and Tien “aim to expand Polity’s readership and contributor pool by featuring scholarship that reaches beyond the already porous boundaries of discipline, incorporating more content engaging gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class, and including more scholarship that pushes the conventional boundaries of political science.”

“Editing a journal is an honor, privilege, and responsibility as it allows us to influence the academy and conversation in at least some small way,” said Tien. “I am most looking forward to honoring that responsibility with two incredibly talented colleagues in a way that expands the conversation to include voices that historically have had trouble getting heard.”

Planned new initiatives include an “Ask a Political Scientist” section featuring interventions from political scientists and prominent thinkers from aligned disciplines on pressing political issues, such as the role of the electoral college and the American party system, the remaking of public space, and the politics of work, especially as impacted by COVID-19. The goal is to create a forum for political scientists to showcase their expertise and their public engagement. Graduate Center Distinguished Professor Emerita Frances Fox Piven (Political Science) will be among be among the first contributors.

“Classics Revisited” is another planned new section in which invited scholars reflect on canonical texts in the discipline and comment on their contemporary significance. And prominent scholars will be invited to curate “Inter/intra-disciplinary Symposia,” a new section of shorter interventions on a theme with the goal of addressing an urgent political issue or generating a cross-disciplinary dialogue.

The team also seeks to give Polity a more robust presence on social media, beginning with a Twitter account @PolityalsBeruf. The Twitter handle is a gesture to Max Weber’s seminal essay, “Politics as a Vocation.”

“I am honored to assume this role and responsibility and delighted to be doing this work with Alyson and Charles,” said Marasco. “I am especially looking forward to the opportunity to immerse fully in the richness and diversity of our discipline.”

The Northeastern Political Association thanked its outgoing editor-in chief, Professor Roger Karapin (GC/Hunter, Political Science), and associate editor, Profesor Leonard Feldman, GC/Hunter, Political Science) for their five years of service to the journal.

Read the Northeastern Political Science Association announcement.

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