St. Catharines university students bring history journal back in print

The Brock University history publication “The General” is back and this time, you can actually hold it and flip through its pages.

After three years with an online-only presence, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The General has finally made its return to print.

For the uninitiated, The General is an undergraduate history journal published by the Brock University Historical Society. Its goal is to highlight undergraduate students’ academic achievements and celebrate their passion for history.

The launch of the seventh edition of the undergraduate history journal was celebrated last week by Brock History students who came together to mark the occasion at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre.

“It’s all student work — the authors, peer reviewers, cover design artist, editors — we’re all students,” says Miria Pelletier, who co-edited the volume alongside fellow History student Alexandra Lewis.

“We have the support of Brock’s librarians, Printing Services and Associate Professor Daniel Samson, but for the most part, this is student work, and students are so excited about it,” she added.

Supervised by Samson in the Department of History, Pelletier and Lewis worked with Digital Scholarship Librarian Tim Ribaric to learn the digital journal system and publish the final digital edition. A print copy is also available in Archives and Special Collections within the Brock University Library.

“It was a real highlight to watch the journal progress and see everyone’s hard work pay off in the end,” says Lewis, who describes the process as stressful but fun. “We’re very proud of it.”

Hoping to encourage undergraduate students to get involved with the publication in the future, Lewis said, “Just take the risk and submit your paper. It’s not as scary an experience as I thought it would be. It’s likely your paper will get chosen if you try hard and do the revisions. It’s worth trying.”

Both students will be returning to Brock next year to work on their education degrees and plan to apply what they have learned through this process, including communication skills and event organizing.

“We both really enjoyed this course and we really enjoyed Associate Professor Samson’s approach,” says Pelletier. “He gave us support but we had to figure things out on our own. It was the perfect amount of support, so we could really take the lead. Those are the skills I’m going to take with me.”

For those who want to see the online 2022 version of The General, just click HERE