FORWARD

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?

In Vol. 10, the OR staff are proud to offer five excellent essays and research papers from the disciplines of Communication Studies/Journalism, Political Ecology, Psychology, Critical Film & Game Studies, and History. All of these pieces investigate or address a variety of unjust systems, a complex multitude of interrelated social mechanisms and complicities. Discussions include settler colonial continuities in neoliberal environmentalism, hegemonic white bias in news writing and coverage, and the multi-faceted sociopolitical and economic systems responsible for the history of Atlantic piracy. Some essays offer potential solutions: how music might make school classrooms more accessible for neurodivergent students and how the thoughtful construction of video game environments might provoke revolutions in social life and desire. Simultaneously, we must acknowledge that such works diverge radically in their approaches and we not wish to erase their differences but, instead, to see them in communication with each other and with readers across a variety of disciplines.

I would like to thank every member of the Occam’s Razor staff—Katie, Mac, Sam, Fiona, and Veronica Anne—for their diligent work in a time of crisis and reduced OR funding. This year has been difficult, but I could not be prouder of our work. I am also grateful to Student Publications for continuing to fight for Vol. 10’s printing budget and to Megan McGinnis and Christopher Patton for their ongoing support of our enterprise. Finally, I must thank every past member of the OR staff for their commitment to producing this magazine and leaving me—and future chief editors—with visions of what Occam’s Razor can someday become.

Sincerely,

Ally Remy Editor-in-Chief