Social Justice Questionnaire: Responses
James S. Baumlin | Missouri State University | ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
Nikita Goel | E.L.A. Project | ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6340-7740
Sharanya DG | E.L.A. Project | ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3927-8984
___________________________________________
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71106/TVDW7434
Publication Issue: Social Justice Special Issue
Abstract | While developing this Special Issue on Social Justice (SJ), we became increasingly aware that even though SJ claims a global discourse, the term is largely embedded with academic erudition. Underneath the theoretical and policy aspect of SJ lies the very real, painfully visceral human experiences of injustices, leading to varying articulations of what SJ means to people in different socio-economic, politico-cultural contexts. The Issue’s attempt to present global perspectives and personal narratives on the problem of SJ would remain incomplete if its explorations do not go beyond the confines of the academic community and conventional templates of academic research practices. While LLIDS attempts to break away from the latter and create an alternative space through its Forum section, the very nature of the topic of SJ and its real-time implications demand a more personal and diversified approach. The idea of the questionnaire then was an attempt to innovate a writing format by way of including perspectives of people from all walks of life on their lived experiences of discriminations and injustices as well as their expectations from Justice.
Key words | Social Justice, Injustices, SJ Theory, Diversity, Women rights, Workplace Exploitation, Race Discrimination, Legislative Inequalities, Indigenous Rights, DEI, Human Rights, Questionnaire Responses, Survey
James S. Baumlin (jbaumlin@missouristate.edu; ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5837-8669) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Missouri State University, USA, where he has taught coursework in early-modern English literature (Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton), critical theories, and the history of rhetoric. He has published extensively in these fields, as well as in rhetorical theory, creative nonfiction, and composition pedagogy. His current research focuses on the history of Western ethos from antiquity to the present day. Among his many honors and awards is an election to membership in the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE, an affiliate of the UNESCO-sponsored International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures) and receipt of an Excellence in English award, presented by the English-Speaking Union, H.R.H. Prince Philip presiding.
Nikita Goel (nikita.goel@ellids.com; ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6340-7740) is an editor of the Diamond OA journal Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies (LLIDS), having co-founded it 9 years ago. She also leads E.L.A. Project (Education and Liberal Arts Project), the publisher of LLIDS, which was instituted in light of the need to re-structure the current educational and research scenario in India. Her work with LLIDS and ELA Project has inspired her research on Open Access and has cultivated a practice-based approach to work on OA policy-making and sustainability as well as exploring its viability in the Indian subcontinent.
Sharanya DG (sharanya.dg@ellids.com; ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3927-8984) is an Assistant Editor at the Open Access academic journal, Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies (LLIDS). She holds a Masters degree in Contemporary Literature and Culture from Birkbeck, University of London, where her dissertation focused on the forms of literary resistance in contemporary feminist Dalit fiction. She completed her undergraduation from Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, India with a major in English and minors in Anthropology and Philosophy. She has previously taught academic reading and writing at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Through her engagement with research, Sharanya hopes to continue exploring the intricate ways in which our cultural and political lives entangle with literature.
MLA Citation for this Article:
“Social Justice Questionnaire Responses.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, Social Justice Special Issue, 30 Apr. 2026, pp. xi–xxx, https://doi.org/10.71106/TVDW7434.