Lingua Franca
Encyclopedia
Lingua Franca was an American magazine about intellectual and literary life in academia
.
. Kittay, as the New York Times reported, "saw a niche for vivid reporting about the academic world and especially about its many personal feuds and intellectual controversies." Kittay told the newspaper, "I was an academic who was very, very hungry for information about what made my profession so alive, where people became passionate about abstract ideas." The New York Observer
described the magazine's impact, "It soon became a much-talked-about phenomenon inside and outside academia"; as the Village Voice expressed it in November, 2000, on the journal's tenth anniversary, "Linga Francas influence on nineties magazine culture has been so strong, it's sometimes hard to remember that it was unique in academia when it began."
, Time
, Slate
, The New York Times Book Review
, and The New Yorker
: Peter Beinart
, Lev Grossman
, Fred Kaplan
, Robert S. Boynton, Warren St. John
, Jonathan Mahler
, Jennifer Schuessler. As cultural critic Ron Rosenbaum
wrote in The New York Observer, "The kind of writing about ideas that once found a home at Lingua Franca has since — with the assistance of many talented Lingua Franca alumni, both writers and editors — succeeded in changing the face of serious journalism for the better."
and Margaret Talbot
. It was edited thereafter by Alexander Star and Emily Eakin. The New York Times critic A.O. Scott served as a senior editor, as did New Yorker
features editor Daniel Zalewski.
— a parody of academic practices and post-structuralist
language — was first revealed ; Lingua Franca editors later published a book (The Sokal Hoax) of selected papers on the subject.
The following year, editor Alexander Star collected and published an anthology: Quick Studies: The Best of Lingua Franca. New Yorker editor David Remnick
told The New York Times, "That is terrible. I really enjoyed it — I always found something fascinating to read in that magazine, and not infrequently something that I wish we had had for The New Yorker."
for General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation) in 1993. The magazine was nominated again in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 1999.
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
.
Founding
The magazine was founded in 1990 by Jeffrey Kittay, an editor and Professor of French Literature at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Kittay, as the New York Times reported, "saw a niche for vivid reporting about the academic world and especially about its many personal feuds and intellectual controversies." Kittay told the newspaper, "I was an academic who was very, very hungry for information about what made my profession so alive, where people became passionate about abstract ideas." The New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
described the magazine's impact, "It soon became a much-talked-about phenomenon inside and outside academia"; as the Village Voice expressed it in November, 2000, on the journal's tenth anniversary, "Linga Francas influence on nineties magazine culture has been so strong, it's sometimes hard to remember that it was unique in academia when it began."
Contributors
Contributors included editors and writers who went on to careers at The New RepublicThe New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
, The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
: Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart
-Early life and education:Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of South African immigrants. His mother, Doreen, works at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his father, Julian Beinart, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His stepfather is theatre...
, Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, notably the author of the novels Warp , Codex , The Magicians and The Magician King...
, Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan is a journalist and contributor to Slate magazine. His "War Stories" column covers international relations and US foreign policy.-Career:...
, Robert S. Boynton, Warren St. John
Warren St. John
Warren St. John is an American author and journalist.St. John is the author of the National Bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania. The book explores the phenomenon of sports fandom and chronicles the Alabama Crimson Tide's 1999 season by following the team...
, Jonathan Mahler
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning is a book by Jonathan Mahler that focuses on the year 1977 in New York City. It is 'a layered account', 'kaleidoscopic', 'a braided narrative', that weaves political, cultural, and sporting threads into one narrative...
, Jennifer Schuessler. As cultural critic Ron Rosenbaum
Ron Rosenbaum
-Life and career:Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in New York City, New York and grew up in Bay Shore, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1968 and won a Carnegie Fellowship to attend Yale's graduate program in English Literature, though he dropped out after taking one course...
wrote in The New York Observer, "The kind of writing about ideas that once found a home at Lingua Franca has since — with the assistance of many talented Lingua Franca alumni, both writers and editors — succeeded in changing the face of serious journalism for the better."
Editors
Jeffrey Kittay served as the magazine's editor-in-chief; from 1991-1994, Lingua Franca was co-edited by Judith ShulevitzJudith Shulevitz
Judith Shulevitz is an American journalist, editor and culture critic. She graduated from Yale College in 1986.From 1991 to 1994, Shulevitz was the co-editor of Lingua Franca with Margaret Talbot...
and Margaret Talbot
Margaret Talbot
-Life:She is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She has also written for The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly. She is a regular panelist on the Slate podcast "The DoubleX Gabfest."...
. It was edited thereafter by Alexander Star and Emily Eakin. The New York Times critic A.O. Scott served as a senior editor, as did New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
features editor Daniel Zalewski.
Sokal Affair
Lingua Franca was where the Sokal AffairSokal Affair
The Sokal affair, also known as the Sokal hoax, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies...
— a parody of academic practices and post-structuralist
Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and '70s...
language — was first revealed ; Lingua Franca editors later published a book (The Sokal Hoax) of selected papers on the subject.
Final issue
The magazine halted publication during the 2001 economic downturn.The following year, editor Alexander Star collected and published an anthology: Quick Studies: The Best of Lingua Franca. New Yorker editor David Remnick
David Remnick
David Remnick is an American journalist, writer, and magazine editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age in 2000...
told The New York Times, "That is terrible. I really enjoyed it — I always found something fascinating to read in that magazine, and not infrequently something that I wish we had had for The New Yorker."
Honors
Lingua Franca received the National Magazine AwardNational Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...
for General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation) in 1993. The magazine was nominated again in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 1999.
External links
- Lingua Franca Article Archive
- The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: Chronicle of Academic Life Suspends Publication - "When Intellectuals Had a Real Magazine: Viva Lingua Franca!" By Ron Rosenbaum in The New York Observer, (April 2006).
- Sokal Affair: Alan Sokal, "A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies," Lingua Franca, May/June, 1996.