CharterAcad-Myth is an academic email list for discussion related to the study of myth. It is a free service that is managed independently, but as an informal, joint venture between the Universities of Aberdeen and Essex. It is based on the National Academic Mailing List Service known as 'JISCMail' which is hosted and run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
List membership is at the discretion of the moderation management team and restricted to people with a bona fide academic interest in myth. It is anticipated that most subscribers will be academics, students, authors or researchers in myth or a closely-related field (e.g.: folklore, religion, film, literature).
Applications for list membership can be submitted online and usually need to be supported by a reference from an existing list member who can vouch for the applicant's bona fide academic interest in myth. Exceptions from this requirement will be made if eligibility for membership of the list can be verified in other ways, e.g.: at myth conferences, being staff/students at a myth centre, or having published relevant academic papers or books.
Please allow up to a couple of weeks for applications to be processed. Once an application has been approved, the moderator will add the member to the list. New members of Acad-Myth will be announced to the list using the information provided on their application forms.
Membership of Acad-Myth is subject to the acceptance of Jiscmail's policies - detailed at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ - and the additional guidelines outlined by this charter.
For ad-hoc/informal topics, any member can initiate or contribute to a discussion, whether a neophyte or world-renowned expert. Discussions can take place in parallel, so basic questions/points are welcome alongside expert debate providing they do not "disrupt the flow of discussion" (see JiscMail policies). Occasionally, there are also scheduled events, such as presentations of papers, mythological analyses of films/books, surveys, reviews of classical myths, etc.. If there are any special guidelines applying to contributions for such an event they will be announced at the start of the discussion. Any members with an idea for an event, or wanting to present a paper, or lead an event, should contact the moderator offlist.
Please note that Acad-Myth is a private list, which means that messages and archives are accessible to members only. Messages are therefore sent 'in confidence' to list members, and can therefore not be used outside the list without the express permission of the copyright holder (which is usually the author of the post).
The list is passively moderated. That is, when a member submits an email to the list it is automatically copied to the whole list without any intervention by the moderator. If any significant misunderstandings or interpersonal/non-academic problems occur, for the benefit of the majority of list members, the members involved should voluntarily take the discussion temporarily offlist to be resolved.
Should there be a need for escalation, the moderator reserves the right to take appropriate action, if necessary, either on his/her own initiative or at the request of other list members. Any concerns about the moderator's actions can be raised with the moderator management team (via the chair), whose (majority) decision is final. The current moderator is Steve Myers. The moderator management team currently consists of Robert Segal (Chair), Roderick Main and Leon Burnett.
Disclaimer: Please note that this website and the email list are both text-based. Most content is therefore accessible through semantic conversion. However, it is run independently, is not owned by the Universities of Aberdeen and Essex, and is therefore not subject to the same legislative requirements on accessibility. See https://www.essex.ac.uk/disclaimer/accessibility for more information.