Creating a Festschrift for Dr. Shulgin.

[Jabberwocky]

Festschrift:

"In academia, a Festschrift (German pronunciation: [ˈfɛstʃrɪft]; plural, Festschriften, [ˈfɛstʃrɪftən] or Festschrifts), is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory (piece of) writing.
A Festschrift contains original contributions by the honored academic's close colleagues, often including his or her former doctoral students. It is typically published on the occasion of the honoree's retirement, sixtieth or sixty-fifth birthday, or other notable career anniversary."

Greetings to everyone here in Advanced Drug Discussion!

An opportunity has come to my attention to create a formal Festschrift in honor of Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, who I'm sure needs no introduction in this forum. ADD is home to some of Bluelight's brightest minds, and my purpose in posting here is to ask any members we may have who are active in scientific academic circles whether they would be interested in helping make this important document a reality.

Whoever decides to be involved in this effort will either have direct experience in compiling anthologies and be masters of the blue and red pencils when it comes to copy-editing, punctuation, grammar, spelling and citation standards, or be tight with people who do have such skills and are willing to commit.

The goal of the whole project should be to create a document of academic production quality standards, but of course, not all contributions included, have to be purely "academic." One design goal could be that the Festschrift could provide the compelling basis and thesis for the nomination of Shulgin for the Nobel Prize for chemistry or medicine.

Please feel free to reply to this thread if you or someone you know may fit the aforementioned profile and be willing to sacrifice time and effort towards the goal of creating this document. I would love nothing more than to have members of our community involved in this noble undertaking. Thanks in advance -- I look forward to hearing from you.

(Moderators, feel free to make this post sticky if you deem it appropriate, and to PM me directly with any questions).

Best,

SG

 

[specialspack]

Nice idea, but given that -

A Festschrift contains original contributions by the honored academic's close colleagues, often including his or her former doctoral students

Even those here active in academic circles are unlikely to fit this bill. Are you approaching Nichols, Glennon, Ott, Passie, Cozzi, Doblin, Strassman, Jacob etc etc etc... I'm afraid I don't know if Sasha had many doctoral students. If one of the stated aims is to provide the basis for a Nobel prize nomination (highly unlikely, I would wager) then having such heavyweights on board would be absolutely essential.

 

[Jabberwocky]

The definition was provided as a general primer on the topic, not a bright-line rule.

Nichols, Doblin, Strassman, Hanna and a number of others are all in the loop, however, there will also be a place for those who can contribute other skills (such as editing, experience with scientific publication, etc.)

Perhaps not a one of our members will be in a position to contribute to the project, but I'd like to think otherwise.

SG

 

[Epsilon Alpha]

While I can appreciate the sentiment, Shulgin winning the chemistry or medicine prize would be much like Obama winning the peace prize. Cooking up and eating hundreds of drugs in your backyard is cool and all, but the prize should really go to someone who makes a nano-particle breakthrough or manages to find a limitless source of human totipotent stem cells.

*battens down the hatch on the flame shelter*

 

[sekio]

Obama already won the Nobel peace prize, back when he was elected first term in 2009.

Just saying, anything could happen.

also, just to be totally clear, is this job composing and editing a document from pre-existing sources, or is there new material being written?

 

[DJHENRU]

I first learned of festschrift from Thomas Rieldninger, who for Gordon Wasson made The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson (1990)
Perhaps this could be a good comparison, atleast as an homage in a major publisher in academia and out.
Riedlinger influenced my definition of festschrift, he said that Wasson's was delivered to his colleagues, in Harvard and also explained a humorous way to tell that the subject is passing on, from their position!

 

[xx001]

Maybe you should have a website for this.

 

[rakketakke]

Ah it'd be so great if alexander actually was a part of this forum... Welcome anyhow.

I see this as good initiative, unfortunately I don't have the neccesary skills.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I'm just following up on this topic. Some good feedback here that I plan to pass on. The idea was initially generated by individuals close to the Shulgins and preliminary logistics are still being discussed.

I will be representing Bluelight at Psychedelic Science 2013 and hope to discern whether we can move forward (and with whom) by that time, and perhaps have a chance to discuss the idea further with both attendees and presenters alike. If you'd like more information on the PS 2013 symposium or are interested in attending, please it check out here:

http://www.maps.org/conference/

Thanks again. I know this idea may seem a bit "pie in the sky" at the moment, but big things often have small beginnings. As many of you know, the psychedelic community is a small and closely-knit group and many of the key players have expressed their interest and are presently part of the dialog. I'll post more info as I get it.

SG

 

[Jabberwocky]

I first learned of festschrift from Thomas Rieldninger, who for Gordon Wasson made The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson (1990)
Perhaps this could be a good comparison, atleast as an homage in a major publisher in academia and out.
Riedlinger influenced my definition of festschrift, he said that Wasson's was delivered to his colleagues, in Harvard and also explained a humorous way to tell that the subject is passing on, from their position!

I think this is a great comparison and will take it back to the discussion. Thanks again.

 

[tryp2fun]

I'm willing to help out with this.