Since 1981, the Meridian Journal of International and Cross-Cultural Perspectives has boasted an entirely Lewis & Clark student-made and published body of work highlighting global issues. This was the first year, however, that the Meridian’s editorial board held a launch event with authors presenting their work along with the distribution of the 43rd volume of the journal. Attendees, presenters and editors were excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn and connect at this unique event.
In the past, the Meridian was distributed during the annual International Affairs Symposium. This year, the board wanted to introduce some of the authors and build a greater connection with the student body, so they hosted a launch event on April 1, ahead of the symposium which ran from April 7-9.
Five students presented their work on a variety of topics including the legal rights of animals and reproductive justice in Palestine. This allowed audience members to ask questions, facilitating a lively discussion. The presentations were quite powerful and compelled the audience to think deeply about how global issues impact everyone. For instance, Saleth Sierra ’27 and Teresa Frahm ’27 explained how democratic governments can lead to less effective environmental policy from an economic and international affairs lens, directly challenging the common belief that democratic governments lead to environmental policy focused on conservation
Meridian Editor-in-Chief Vesna Uzunova ’26 loves how the Meridian expands students’ minds.
“This is my excuse to learn more, and it’s from people my age, that’s so impressive,” Uzunova said. “I would not have known about this because it’s so hard to seek out information away from my own echo chamber. This is my way to do that.”
Many presentations and papers came from work students are doing in class, but these projects are from a variety of disciplines. While the Meridian may seem fit for students majoring in international affairs, the editorial board wants the journal to be a place where students of all majors and interests can publish their work.
Managing Editor Anderson Olson ’25 spoke to the importance he sees in including a variety of perspectives.
“‘International and cross-cultural perspectives’ is our tagline and I think that really can and should be applied to every single discipline at this school,” Olson said. “I think just looking at what people are talking about in this edition, looking at the political world in the global landscape, we can’t afford to just be an international affairs journal anymore, we have to expand.”
One of the major goals of the Meridian is to give a platform to students of all class years, which they were especially able to do with their launch event. While the Meridian only accepts work from undergraduate students, one of the presenters at the event was Mthabisi George Sibanda LLM ’25, a law student well-known on campus for working as a receptionist at the Bon. His presentation on the philosophy and legal status of the personhood of animals drew lots of discussion from the audience and introduced members to new philosophical ideas.
At the heart of the Meridian is the belief in students’ work and ideas. Uzunova explained that she finds every submission that she reads to be meaningful and engaging and wants to encourage more students to have confidence in their work.
“The goal for me is to really nudge that imposter syndrome of undergrad students, especially people in their freshman or sophomore year just coming into college, unsure of what they want to do and how they can contribute to stuff outside of class. A lot of that has to do with being unsure of your competence, and everyone can (contribute),” Uzunova said.
Uzunova knows firsthand some of the challenges of being involved with student media early in college as she joined the editorial board during her first year. She has been the editor-in-chief for the past two years since there have not been any members of the editorial board who have stayed on for multiple years. During her time, she has worked to create a uniform format to draw more first-year and sophomore students to the editorial team. In her role, she has worked hard on the entire process of putting together the journal, which includes sourcing student papers, editing submissions to fit the Meridian’s guidelines and laying out the journal to create an appealing book for students to read. She explained that actually publishing the journal brings her so much joy and pushes her through the process. Along with all of this hard work, she wants to grow the journal by getting more students involved and solidifying the editing process and team.
Part of increasing promotion and involvement was the launch party this year. Olson was a key member in organizing the event through community outreach and graphic design. As a rhetoric and media studies major, Olson has questioned his capabilities at the international affairs focused journal at times, but being in a leadership position has helped him realize that communicating with others is one of his strengths, which transcends academic disciplines. According to him, realizing one’s potential and connecting with others is another benefit of being part of the Meridian.
“I think the goal of this journal is connection — that’s in forming relationships. Most of the people on the editorial board didn’t know each other going in and now we’ve put this all together and orchestrated everything,” Olson said.
Even though the Meridian is made for and by students, Uzunova and Olson feel that many students do not know about it or that they can be involved. Again, some of this comes from the feeling of not being good enough, but also not knowing that the Meridian is about more than international affairs. The editorial board believes that students have interesting things to say and wants to read and share them.
“People don’t just major in English and philosophy and political science and international affairs just because. A lot of the work that’s put in and the papers they write are really meaningful,” Uzunova said.
According to Uzunova, the submission guidelines are left intentionally vague to encourage students from all disciplines to submit their work, especially essays from class relating to “global politics, social movements, economics, media studies or political communication.” She also explained that next fall, there will likely be a theme for submissions and the board will release more guidelines concerning length and style.
While students will have to wait until next academic year to contribute to the Meridian, they can still read the interesting work in this volume by checking out a copy from the Watzek library reserves or by looking online for a digitized version that should be coming this June. Students should also look forward to another similar launch event next spring for the next issue.
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