Beloit College’s long tradition of student academic publishing is entering a new chapter with the launch of The Living Archive, a new magazine and student organization dedicated to exploring the College’s rich history while connecting it to the ideas and scholarship shaping campus today. The publication aims to create a space where students, faculty, and alumni can engage with the past while contributing to Beloit College’s robust academic culture.

The Living Archive will publish once per term in both print and digital formats, featuring work from across campus in any discipline. The magazine’s mission is to build a stronger academic culture by highlighting academic work and connecting it with Beloit’s long intellectual tradition. The publication seeks to foster dialogue across disciplines and encourage students to see one another not only as classmates but as scholarly peers.

“The Living Archive publication is a unique opportunity for students to share their work,” says Diane Ray, the college Archivist as of spring of 2025 and advisor for The Living Archive alongside professor of history Ellen Joyce. “There are few ways for students to share their papers and longer research pieces in their entirety with the campus community, and this publication both helps fill that need and encourages the sharing of ideas and projects.”

The project officially began this spring with an enthusiastic binding event on March 3, where 20 students gathered to help assemble the first copies of the magazine. The event offered a hands-on introduction to the publication process and an opportunity for contributors to see their work produced in a physical format.

“My favorite part of producing the publication has to be the binding events,” said Lily Rogers ’28, the sitting president of the club. “It’s amazing to see all of our work come together in such a fun environment. It’s also really powerful to read these papers in a printed book format.”

As a student-run club, The Living Archive will be guided by a six-person executive team responsible for editing, marketing, event planning, and publication management. Beyond the magazine itself, the organization hopes to host events, workshops, and collaborations that deepen engagement with Beloit’s history and scholarship. “The beauty of The Living Archive is reading and appreciating the academic work of peers while also making the work accessible to everyone who wants to read them,” Rogers said. The Living Archive seeks to inspire a culture where student and faculty scholarship is shared, valued, and remembered.

This project was made possible in part by generous gifts to the Library Archives Fund.