I have been a contractual editor with Cactus Communications for around a year and a half now, and it’s allowed me to not only grow as an editor but also reorient my work life. I have been able to relocate to the windswept wilds of Scotland (oh yes!) and dedicate more of my time and energy to my own academic ambitions.
Before signing up with CACTUS as a contractual editor, I worked for a while in an in-house role for a major academic publisher. Even though I worked in the editorial department, I never had any hand in editing manuscripts and my role was largely an administrative one. When I took the plunge to leave my role and set myself up as a freelance editor, I was thrilled to start with CACTUS! Editing manuscripts intended for publication in journals in fields of my interest was exactly my ambition when I decided to delve into academic publishing. I started out studying environmental sciences at the undergraduate level, and so it is both a pleasure and privilege to be able to edit manuscripts for the Environmental Science, Energy, and Sustainability team.
At the undergrad level, I had a keen passion for ecology and biodiversity conservation, particularly as this relates to agriculture and rural communities. I had every intention of continuing this line of interest when I started my Masters in geography, but the worlds that opened up to me in undertaking a social science degree took me on a completely different path. I began to think beyond a purely environmental focus to one that seeks synergies between environmental and human development goals. This journey took me to India, where I studied a major rural development policy and its workings on the ground in a very beautiful part of the country halfway between Mumbai and Goa. I totally fell in love with India’s warmth, smells, colours, and most importantly the attitude to life of its people. I returned there a year later, this time working in West Bengal on a project looking at the role of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) to anti-poverty efforts.
These days, my research interest is in exploring the role that collaborative working among women can play in buffering rural communities against shocks, such as those induced by climate change or a global pandemic. My colleague and I have just recently submitted a paper to a journal based on our work in West Bengal, in which we critique the conventional economistic approach to women’s empowerment that favours SHGs working on microenterprise projects, and suggest instead that community-oriented projects led and initiated by SHGs themselves may have more enduring empowerment and poverty alleviation outcomes. The flexibility I am privileged to have in my work life meant that I have been able to give this paper the time and energy it needed while continuing to develop as an editor and without getting burned out. My hope is that I will be able to pursue my research interests through a PhD programme starting next autumn. Working as an editor has not only fine-tuned my editing skills, allowing me to support others in publishing their work; it has also helped make me become a better writer and a better academic.
Through my research experiences, I have had the immense privilege of spending time with people in rural India, and I regard these as among the most enriching experiences of my life. Before my first trip to India in 2013, I started learning the Marathi language, and I continue to learn it now for pragmatic reasons (learning the language is essential if you want to speak to people in villages) and for a love of the language. Most Indians I speak to are baffled by the fact that I’m learning Marathi, and most Westerners have never even heard of it, yet I regard it as one of the most interesting things about me. Conversing with people based in Mumbai (the CACTUS headquarters) makes me feel that I’m still connected with the country, even from my cottage up here on the edge of the world!
About the author
Priscilla Corbett is a contractual editor with Cactus Communications.
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