Building a bridge between academics and policy makers is the aim of a new journal published by Old Dominion.

The Journal of Race and Policy, edited by Michael L. Clemons, associate professor of political science and geography and director of ODU’s Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, recently published its first edition. Jie Chen, professor of political science and geography, serves as associate editor.

To be produced annually by the institute during the spring/summer, the journal is a forum for the presentation of research in the areas of education, employment, health care, citizen participation, scholarly investigation and social justice. Its publication is supported by a gift to the university from Frank Batten, the founder of Landmark Communications.

Clemons isn’t aware of any other American scholarly journals that similarly address race and policy issues. “A lot of times, we don’t communicate,” he said of scholars and public officials. “A major thrust of the journal is going to be to bridge that gap.”

The first issue features eight articles, including some by ODU faculty. One, “Beyond the Race Gap in Education: The Status of African-American Education in South Hampton Roads” by ODU’s Gail Singleton Taylor, analyzes results from Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests and says that, judged on SOL test scores alone, the educational prognosis of African American students in the region is bleak.

Other articles include: “Making Sense of Race, I: The Ideology of Race, the Biology of Human Variation and the Problem of Medical and Public Health Research” by Adolph Reed Jr., an internationally known expert in his field from the University of Pennsylvania, and “Competence Across the Life Span: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Dilemma” by ODU’s Richardean Benjamin and Vanessa Sheppard of Georgetown University.