Study Up on the Boss with New Springsteen Academic Journal

I am personally and regrettably familiar with the phenomenon of Cultural Studies students being the butt of jokes. The silver lining is that our curricula, bully ammunition though it may be, is really, really fun. Classes on Buffy and Queen B.? Check. Politics of representation in Good Times? You betcha. Now, unemployable undergrads everywhere can rethink their thesis topics: Bruce Springsteen comes to academia! BOSS (The Biannual Online-Journal for Springsteen Studies), the first academic journal devoted to all things Springsteen, will feature scholarly writings on the Boss himself, expanding the field of “is this actual learning?” academics into new territory. Its first edition is slated to be released in June of this year.

Springsteen has been analyzed and politicized before — there have been two “Glory Days” academic symposia on him since 2005, sponsored by Penn State, Virginia Tech, Monmouth University. But with BOSS, the bandanna-clad hero of dad rock will be continually analyzed though “broad interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches to Spingsteen’s songwriting and performance.” According to its mission statement, it “aims to publish scholarly, peer-reviewed essays related to Bruce Springsteen.” Contributors are encouraged to look at his work “through the political, economic, and socio-cultural factors that have influenced his music and shaped its reception.” Before dismissing this as another faddish pseudo-scholarship, take a look at the scholarly heavyweights behind the project:

 Managing Editor:
 Jonathan D. Cohen (PhD Student, Department of History, University of Virginia)

 Editors:
 Roxanne Harde (Professor of English, University of Alberta, Augustana)
Irwin Streight (Professor English, Royal Military College of Canada)

 Editorial Advisory Board:
 Eric Alterman (Professor of English and Journalism, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate School of  Journalism)
Jim Cullen (Ethical Culture Fieldston School)
 Steven Fein (Professor of Psychology, Williams College)
 Bryan Garman (Wilmington Friends School)
Stephen Hazan Arnoff (Office of Culture, Community, and Society, Shalem College)
Donna Luff (Harvard Medical School)
 Lorraine Mangione (Professor of Psychology and Director of Practica, Antioch University New England)
 Lauren Onkey (Vice President of Education and Public Programs, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
June Skinner Sawyers (Newberry Library)
Bryant Simon (Professor of History, Temple University)
Robert Wiersema (Author)
Jerry Zolten (Professor of Communication and American Studies, Penn State University)

To submit a paper for review, check out their guidelines here. For more on their goals, click here.