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Bad Subjects
CategoriesNews magazine
FrequencyWeekly
First issue1992
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Websitebad.eserver.org
ISSN1468-2656

Bad Subjects (more formally Bad Subjects: Political Education For Everyday Life and sometimes The Bad Subjects Collective) is a research collaborative that operates generally out of California as part of the open access electronic publishing cooperative EServer.org. Together, the collaborative creates and publishes an online zine of cultural and political criticism to promote public education about the political implications of everyday life.[citation needed] It was founded at UC Berkeley in September 1992 as a collection of leftist critiques of popular culture written by college students[1] and published as a Gopher service.[2] Bad Subjects may be the longest continuously-running publication on the internet.[3]

History

The cultural magazine Bad Subjects was started at University of California, Berkeley in September 1992 by founding editors Joe Sartelle, Annalee Newitz,[4] and Charlie Bertsch.[5] By 1996, Bad Subjects was both an online and hard copy academic publication.[6]

In 1998, Bad Subjects was identified as a celebrated cultural studies magazine on the Internet.[7] Also in the same year, Bad Subjects founded a small educational nonprofit corporation, to promote the progressive use of new media and print publications. The group has co-authored two books, entitled Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life and Collective Action: A Bad Subjects Anthology.

In 2001, the webzine's popularity had grown to where it was now seen by some as the West Coast's answer to the Illinois-based journal The Baffler.[8]

Current operations

The collective publishes 4-6 issues per year and also features regular editorials and reviews of a wide range of media. The site provides fifteen years of back content for free online and no longer even produces a print edition.[9]

The stated goal of Bad Subjects is to revitalize what it terms "a progressive politics in retreat". The group claims to challenge political dogma by encouraging readers to think about the political dimension to all aspects of everyday life and seeks to broaden the audience for leftist and progressive writing, through a commitment to accessibility and contemporary relevance. 'Bad Subjects' has had a vast number of contributors, contributing-editors and production team members, most recently they have included: Joseph Natoli, Mike Mosher, Molly Hankwitz, Adam Cornford, and Thomas Powell.

References

  1. ^ Rossney, Robert. (March 17, 1994) Online archivists share the wealth. Section: Daily Datebook; Page D7.
  2. ^ Labovitz, John. (October 9, 1995) John Labovitz's e-zine-list. Very good list of 'Zines available on the internet. Obtained June 6, 2007. (noting that old access sites included: (i) Gopher: uclink.berkeley.edu (port 52673); (ii) FTP: english-server.hss.cmu.edu: /English Server/Journals/Bad Subjects/; and (iii) WWW: http://english-server.hss.cmu.edu/BS/Bad.html.)
  3. ^ Jester, Barbara. (December 9, 1997) New York University Office of Public Affairs. Bad Subjects: Political Education For Everyday Life, New Book Out From NYU Press. Obtained June 6, 2007.
  4. ^ Connelly, Phoebe. (September 8, 2006) Chicago Reader So That's Why Frankenstein Is Green. Volume 35; Issue 50; Page A32.
  5. ^ Hanes, Jake. (November 20, 2006) UWIRE - U. Arizona. U. Arizona: Wikipedia not your typical resource.
  6. ^ McMillen, Liz. (April 19, 1996) The Chronicle of Higher Education. A self-consciously renegade 'zine': Berkeley graduate students hope their iconoclastic journal will help invigorate the left. Volume 42; Issue 32; Page A14.
  7. ^ Annett, Timothy. (July 12, 1998) St. Petersburg Times. Cyberia. Section: Perspective; Page 4D. (also giving the then-website as http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/bs/ )
  8. ^ Kipen, David. (November 17, 2001) San Francisco Chronicle In praise of small presses fund-raiser in Oakland honors alternative publishers. Section: Daily Datebook; Page D2.
  9. ^ Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. (May 1, 2007) Harper's Magazine. A world in three aisles. Volume 314; Issue 1884; Page 47.
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