Dearest Reader, Welcome to the 10th anniversary volume of Occam’s Razor (OR), Western Washington University’s undergraduate academic journal. Beginning in 2010 as a passion project of co-founders Chris Crow and Cameron Adams, Occam’s Razor set out to become the premier platform for exceptional undergraduate scholarship at Western, to communicate research in a uniquely interdisciplinary manner and, in Cameron’s words, to hold space for the communal exploration of ideas and topics. In ten years and ten volumes, Occam’s Razor has accomplished much: We have achieved official recognition as a Western Student Publication with full university funding; we have helped jump-start the academic careers of numerous Western scholars; we have developed methodologies to make challenging scholarship accessible across disciplinary boundaries; and we have forwarded knowledge and learning regarding pertinent issues of inquiry, especially in relation to efforts of social justice. While I look upon what we have accomplished—that is, what accomplishments have been passed down to this team— with pride, I also acknowledge that Occam’s Razor has much more work to do in the future: We must increase our submission and publication rates to be of better use to our campus community and we must increase our efforts to publish WWU students of color and, in particular, Black and Indigenous scholars. These questions remain to be answered and developed: How do we truly hold communal space for an empathetic and just exchange of interdisciplinary ideas, and how can such a space produce action and transformation in and outside of our academic institutions? In short, what exactly is an academic journal for?
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