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Hi Scholar,

Over the last few months, something has been igniting inside us. A burning desire to do something for the scholar, and for scholarship.

You may have noticed it in our writing.

The Critic wrote of her decision to step outside the walls of academia while remaining deeply committed to building a commons for scholarship.

The Tatler, in his last essay, outlined a vision for an alternative model of scholar-led knowledge creation.

Together, we’ve written about reviving the figure of the scholar – reclaiming scholarship from the ruins of neoliberal academia, and returning it to care, curiosity, and community.

And so, to move these hopes and dreams out of the text and into the world, we’ve taken the next step:

We’ve officially registered The Scholar Initiative CIC - a not-for-profit organisation established to serve the interests of the scholarly community that has begun to take shape here, in this space.

Written into the fabric of this organisation is a promise to serve scholarship - not private or personal interest. 

It’s the beginning of something bigger. A foundation – not for a start-up, business, or an academic centre – for a cultural shift. A way to give form and anchor to what we’ve been building here together. 

Right now, we’re just a couple of scholars with a newsletter, a small website, and a handful of ideas. But we’ve begun to recognise: this isn’t just writing for the sake of writing. It’s community. You, reading this, are part of it.

So we’re building an organised para-academic space for scholarship and scholars. For those inside or outside the traditional university who want to dedicate themselves to, and be in a relationship with, knowledge. 

The aim of The Scholar Initiative is to help bring about a cultural shift: one that revives the figure of the scholar and their commitment to learning, knowing, and thinking, not just within the institution of academia, but beyond it. 

Scholar, we are committed to you.