Students relaunch religion journal after 4-year hiatus

Sean Brenner | June 10, 2025

All Shahzerah Ali wanted to do was submit an article for publication. Now, the UCLA religion major is leading a team that has resurrected a student-run academic journal.

During the 2022–23 academic year, her first at UCLA, Ali noticed a page on the Center for the Study of Religion’s website, providing links to past issues of the UCLA Journal of Religion and indicating that the submission period for the next issue was “TBD.”

“I was determined that by my sophomore year, I would submit something,” she said. “I really love my major, I loved all the papers I had been writing for it and I wanted to test the waters of academic publishing.”

Ali waited patiently for that TBD to turn into an actual date. When it didn’t, she took matters into her own hands and reached out to Beth Kraemer, the center’s assistant director and academic adviser. Kraemer told her that the journal hadn’t been published since 2021, but she offered to help if Ali were interested in bringing it back to life.

Ali jumped at the chance.

In the fall of 2024, Ali, now a third-year student, began recruiting editorial board members to work with her on reviving the publication. Seven undergraduates signed up. A call went out for submissions, and — somewhat to the team’s surprise — an impressive 15 papers came in, from students at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and three other colleges.

Ultimately, nine of the papers were selected, covering topics such as praising God through music, the concept of human dignity applied to AI and the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez. Fulfilling her original goal, Ali got a paper into the journal, too. Her article examines examples of violence against women in the Old Testament and how those stories shape the perception of such violence today.

In addition to the traditional academic essays, the editors also chose to include a one-act play — a decision that Ali said reflects the board’s goal of being “interdisciplinary in our approach to religion.”

Joshua Waugh, a lecturer for the Study of Religion interdepartmental program, served as the board’s advisor, guiding the students through the editorial review process.

“What was most impressive to me was that these students started this project at all,” he said. “It takes a lot of effort to do this, a lot of organization just to get the ball rolling and a lot of will power to see it through.”

Waugh also praised the students for maintaining a professional, supportive environment throughout the year — something he said can be lacking in professional academic publishing — and he credited Kraemer for ensuring that the production stayed on schedule.

Finally, after months of hard work, the first new issue of the journal will be published online this month. (Find the link on the Center for the Study of Religion’s website.)

With the 2025 issue complete, Ali is already thinking about plans for next year. She’d like to get more students involved and create a more formal organizational structure, to build a foundation so that the journal could live on after she and her colleagues graduate.

“I wouldn’t want to see the next issue published in 2031,” Ali said. “I want to be able to pass the torch to students who really want to keep this going and I hope it continues after my time at UCLA.”

In addition to Ali, the editorial board members are Brandon Combs, Alexander Inchaustegui, Samuel Kunowski, Adam Neuendorff, Kathryn Quick, Alfons Rosales and Inesa Wenn.