Undergraduate literary study at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is an inimitable blend of independent and collaborative learning. From Independent Research Modules (ISMs) and Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROPs)1 to group presentations on weekly readings and co-facilitation assignments in tutorials, the programme challenges us to think both as captains of our own intellectual ships and as team players.

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It’s no surprise, given how intricately these two values—solo and social learning—are woven into department pedagogy, that they influence how students interact outside the classroom as well. We proofread one another’s Honours Theses and other writing assignments, learning a great deal about constructive criticism and how we write in the process. We make notes together on everything from Jane Austen to the Avengers, discovering thereby just how fulfilling it can be to collectively inhabit and generate fresh insights into new and old texts beyond the classroom. We trade pre-loved books and course readers and, in doing so, trade marginalia and embedded post-it notes as well, sharing paper memories of prior literary engagements and endearments. We also form student groups, such as the NUS Literary Society (known to us as “LitSoc”), that help channel and express our passion for the literary arts in ways that we may not get to explore fully within the formal boundaries of a university classroom.

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Margins celebrates this spirit of independent and collaborative literary study. The e-journal was founded in 2013 by a group of English Literature (EN) majors from the NUS with precisely this intent. After a brief hiatus following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the current editorial team took time to rehash the journal, Margins is now being relaunched. It boasts a new multi-generic format which interpolates academic essays, book reviews, and creative works, as well as a theme to match the times: “A New World.” Besides the resonances between this theme and various topics we encounter in class (upon which the Introduction to this issue will dwell), “A New World” also references the new digital classroom into which we have all been thrusted. This new pedagogical context has profound implications for how we learn. The shift towards online learning certainly intensifies, among other things, the need for self-directed learning; it also forces us to find new ways to establish intellectual community, since we meet face-to-face less frequently and have limited access to simple but essential privileges like those informal post-lecture conversations with friends and instructors that constitute so much of our learning experience on campus. One way we can help ourselves navigate this new normal is to direct our energies towards creating new opportunities for self-directed and collaborative learning that augment our formal undergraduate experience.

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Beyond serving as a rallying point for the undergraduate literary community, then, Margins also aims to function as a student-driven pedagogical resource: a tool that’ll help us learn from one another in ways that build on work we already do in the classroom. The journal aims to publish work that, drawing from our coursework and beyond, inventively nuances our understanding of important matters and methods of literary study. With its new multi-generic format, Margins focuses specifically on how more familiar ways of consolidating scholarly knowledge—here, the academic essay—may interact with less familiar ones—book reviews and creative pieces—to productive effect, compelling us to engage with literary texts and subjects via different inroads. The journal is, of course, still an experiment in progress. And a student publication like Margins is only as strong and effective as the community it serves and draws its materials from. We hope that “A New World” will inspire more members of the undergraduate literary community at the NUS (and beyond) to share their work and ideas with one another.

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We also hope that Margins will become a portal through which students, instructors, and all members of the literary community at the university can continue interacting in fruitful and long-lasting ways. The editorial team is extremely grateful to Prof. Michelle Lazar and Prof. Chitra Sankaran for their support of this initiative, including our suggestion to create book prizes for the best submission in each of the journal’s three categories. The revamped and reinvigorated Margins would also not have been possible without the advice of Dr Susan Ang, who guided the editorial team through the journal’s initial restructuring and subsequently lent us her time and expertise as a faculty reviewer of its latest issue. Dr Gilbert Yeoh also gave us his time and advice as a faculty reviewer for two essays in this issue, on top of providing us an opportunity to share the journal’s new initiatives with prospective juniors during the department’s 2021 Open House. Ms Angeline Ang from the General Office took time out of her busy schedule to help the editorial team broadcast its Call for Submissions to the EN cohort during one of the most hectic periods of the academic year. Dr Alvin Lim also lent us his support by sharing information about Margins on the department website. Dr Priya Maholay-Jaradi from the Department of History as well as Ms Rie Ong from the NUS Museum lent us their expertise concerning image publication in relation to two essays in this issue of Margins, for which we are very grateful. In the process of trying to procure more submissions for this issue, the editorial team also received much appreciated support from Prof. Tamara Wagner and Prof. Cheryl Lee, who helped broadcast the journal’s Call for Submissions to our peers at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Margins, then, promises and aspires to be a great deal more than a student publication or interest group. Its long-term vision is to be a space for the cultivation of literary study and community—particularly in the easily overlooked field of undergraduate research and creative writing—in Singapore and beyond.

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This issue, then, might be regarded as a kind of prospectus. Not all the editorial team’s goals for this issue have been realised, but that simply means the journal has more room to grow. With continued support from new and existing students, faculty members and department staff, as well as alumni, it will.