Professor of Religious Studies S Brent Rodríguez-Plate has recently presented on academic editing, religion and film, and the Erie Canal’s relationship to the Underground Railroad.
In the spring, Rodríguez-Plate was invited to Denver University’s Iliff School of Theology to speak with doctoral students and early career faculty about the “Ten Commandments of Academic Publishing.” The lecture, which they have presented elsewhere in the past, is designed to demystify the publication process, especially with regard to journal publishing.
Drawing on their 25 years of experience working in various academic journal editorial roles, Rodríguez-Plate developed five “dos” and five “don’ts” that make up the Ten Commandments. They include things like Commandment Three, “Don’t complain about reviewer two on Twitter,” and Commandment Nine, “Do listen to reviewers once you get your first ‘revise and resubmit’ notification.”
In June, as a guest of the UC San Diego Program for the Study of Religion Distinguished Lecture Series, Rodriguez-Plate presented “The Altar and the Screen.” The multimedia presentation is based on their 2017 book Religion and Film (Columbia UP).
Most recently, Rodríguez-Plate was an invited presenter at the Rome, N.Y., Juneteenth celebration, coordinated by the Rome chapter of the NAACP. Near where the Erie Canal began in 1817, they discussed the important role the canal played in the Underground Railroad and its effect on the economic possibilities for free Black people in the pre-Civil War United States.
