On conversation

I sometimes take solace from the academic hustle in books written by editors about their craft. I read several of these books last year, and one aphorism that stuck with me is Susan Bell's “The debate continues on whether you can teach someone to write; I know, unequivocally, that you can teach someone to edit” (Bell 2007). Alternatively, in his memoir On Writing, Stephen King famously sentenced, “To write is human, to edit is divine” (2010) – but I am sure this only applies to literary masterpieces. There are other maxims: “Editing is a conversation, not a monologue” – Susan Bell again (2007), or “Writing is revising” – Donald Murray. More scholarly guidebooks on editing are short on aphorisms and big on cautionary advice. Scott Norton's Developmental Editing (2009) warns readers (presumably editors) to “Beware of the Rehash,” arguing that “Authors who like ‘complicating’ their subjects sometimes do so out of intellectual laziness, invoking whole theoretical frameworks that have been erected by others without advancing a single thought of their own.” Behind this concern is the question of how to spot original texts worthy of publication. Originality in academia usually takes the form of a contribution to the field. The editors of Science, Technology & Human Values provided in their December 2022 Editorial “What is an STS Contribution Now?” a constructive way to tackle the issue of originality. “We look to manuscripts to clearly tell us, through the literatures and concepts they bring to the aid of their argument, which conversations, traditions, and institutions they are intervening in,” they wrote (Neale et al. 2023). I share many of their reflections on why good publications may contribute to STS, and with STS. But my first year as Editor-in-Chief of Tapuya has landed on conversation (instead of contribution or intervention) as a key aspect of editorial work. Whether I am providing pre-submission manuscript feedback (which, to the dismay of my colleagues, I have started doing this year), evaluating manuscripts submitted for potential publication, writing decision letters, or crafting annual editorial plans, conversation is central. Who do you want to be in conversation with? I ask authors. In the middle of which conversation can I put this text? Or is the text starting a new conversation? I ask about submitted manuscripts. Suggestions about where and how to place reviewed texts in conversation with others, and with Tapuya's readership, take up a good amount of space in decision letters.

As we open Volume 7 of the journal, the second of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, I have come to understand my role here as the work of organizing and animating a conversation, or conversations, rather. If 101,656 downloaded articles in 2023 are any indication, Tapuya is taking part in conversations around the globe (Europe and North America account for 54% of downloads; those in Central and South America remained steady at 22%, while the number of downloads in Asia increased 3% as compared to last year). These conversations do not revolve around a single microphone, and trilingual abstracts are there to make sure that conversations in more than one language are a possibility. The three most-cited articles in 2023 were written by Latin American scholars based in the Global South. Although Tapuya's authors come from various geographic locations, the presence of authors from Brazil and Argentina in prominent roles is especially gratifying. It signifies that we are successfully accomplishing our mission of introducing Latin American STS perspectives to a global readership.

The cover image selected for this volume is a visual distillation of an asynchronous three-way conversation between the participants of the Future of Facts in Latin America working group, the artist/STS scholar Leonardo Aranda, and myself. A piece that will undoubtedly start new conversations, the cover is only a sample of the many exciting dialogues between art, science, fact, and narrative that this Volume will stimulate through thematic clusters, original research articles, literature reviews, and book reviews. As we collaborate with authors and reviewers fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, we view translation as more than just crossing linguistic boundaries; it becomes a dialogue spanning diverse fields and realms. Our choice to publish in English doesn't assert a claim to universality. Instead, it aligns with the understanding that “The universality accessible to us is the finite, limited, concrete universality of diverse and disparate conversations” (Zaid 2003). Acknowledging the significant impact of translation, Tapuya is actively shaping an initiative aimed at fostering “translations as opportunities to pursue further forms of STS dialogue” (Griesemer 2023). Stay tuned for new updates regarding this project. Let's talk. Vamos conversar. Conversemos.