Meet Myriam Maalouf. Not only is she one of my many good friends at McGill who has helped me endure multiple Art History classes every week, but she is also one of the most diligent, sweet, and hardworking students that I have had the pleasure of getting to know and befriending in Montreal. She has been active in the McGill community through her position as an editor for McGill International Review. Myriam will be graduating this summer, taking her first step into the real world, where I’m sure new and exciting opportunites await her. Read on to find out more about her role in McGill International Review, her advice on destressing, and her post-graduation plans!
Belle Kim for Her Campus McGIll (HC McGill): Hey Myriam. Can we start by having you tell the readers more about yourself?
Myriam Maalouf (MM): I am a U3 Political Science student in Honours. I’m also minoring in Art History and Italian Studies. I’m currently involved as an editor and writer in McGill International Review. In my free time, I usually like to work out at the gym or do yoga.
HC McGill: What is McGill International Review (MIR)?
MM: It’s this online publication and we post articles written by students on international affairs, relations, and what’s happening in various countries. A student can give their own take on the issue. My work involves working with a team of writers and guiding them through choosing a topic, where they want to take the topic, while also editing their writing. It’s a lot of back-and-forth where I will edit the draft and the writer will look over it, etc.; I tend to give a lot of constructive criticism and try my best to be positive because at the end we are all equal students – possibly even in the same year – we just happen to be editors and writers, you know. So you have to be careful to not be condescending; we are all trying to do the best we can and publish the best articles.
There are 4 teams of writers and 2 or 3 editors to each team of 7 writers.
HC McGill: That’s a pretty big team.
MM: Yes, it is, and it’s very well-managed. The page has a lot of views and a lot of commenters so it’s quite impressive. I’m very proud of what we have achieved.
HC McGill: Do you enjoy editing for MIR?
MM: Yeah, I do. I mean, it can be hard work but every team has their own publication week so you don’t have to work the whole month. You just have a week where you have to dedicate [yourself to] getting the publication through, and then you have the rest of the month off to start again for the next cycle, where writers pick their topics, and the drafts get written and edited back and forth between the writers and the editors. You want the writers to have time to take the editor’s comments in. I think the most important thing for me is to not influence their work but just guide them towards better writing or a more clear argument. So what I do is I will very quietly edit their grammar, and spellings without marking it, and mark things in red that need to be changed by the writer. I want their voices to be in the article and give them the liberty to phrase things the way they want.
HC McGill: What’s a ‘hot’ topic right now in MIR?
MM: Right now, I have to say Brazil. There’s a lot of protest about the corruption very recently, involving millions of Brazilians on the street, about the president and the old president, etc.
It’s a hot topic because one of the writers on my team wanted to write about it, but today when I looked at the main page, someone from the other team had already written about it without notifying anyone on the editorial team. So now I have to figure out a way to get my writer’s article through since the draft is due tomorrow. It takes a lot of communication to make it work smoothly and it doesn’t always work; people have busy schedules, and sometimes they forget to post, things like that. It happens.
HC McGill: What do you think differentiates MIR from other publications at McGill?
MM: I think it’s the dedication to politics, its accessibility, and the amount of views it gets; it gets a lot of attention from people outside of McGill. I was pretty surprised. It has a journal that’s actually published every year, which gives a platform for McGill students to write about political topics, and you know, be journalists and I think that’s very interesting; it’s online, the articles are shorter and explores new topics so it gives a different feel to people reading it or writing it. It’s good to see the take of students in that they are internalizing a lot of things from their classes and relating it to the news, and putting them all together into these short articles.
HC McGill: You have a tough job and you are also in a tough program. How do you manage it all?
MM: I try to take things as they go. I plan it out and try to stick to my schedule. I don’t like taking time off to do other things so I try my best to give one thing enough time to do that one job well – but it’s difficult when I have a lot of papers. Thankfully though, I work with a team that is lenient, so whenever one of the editors has a busier schedule that week, another editor might take on the extra work. I think it’s got a lot to do with teamwork and being flexible with each other.
HC McGill: Can you advise us on some of your ways to detox from all the stress of MIR, school, life!
MM: Best thing [that works] out for me is getting out and doing things unrelated to studies. Maybe working out, going out with friends, and putting all the studying behind. No matter how busy you are, take that hour or couple hours and do something for yourself.
HC McGill: I need to do this myself!
MM: I mean, it can be very difficult. McGill [schedules] can be very hectic and you often feel like you can’t even spare that one hour. But you can. You can’t let yourself feel bad; you just have to go for it. You are going to study anyways after.
HC McGill: What has been some struggles you have faced during your time as the editor for MIR?
MM: Some struggles have been unresponsive writers because there’s no way for me to get through to them. Or, writers who are late to their draft – I understand everyone is busy but I appreciate it when they notify me ahead of time; […] leaving me hanging can be frustrating. Also, finding enough time to give the articles enough attention to put out the best work possible can be a struggle. There’s always a way though and writers eventually [respond], so (laughs).
HC MCGill: I know you are graduating this semester. Where do you want the MIR to head towards, and what kind of issues do you want your writers to tackle more in the future?
MM: I guess I would like it to have even more attention, which is something we work on, publicizing it through social media, asking writers/editors to share articles to their peers and get the traffic going on. I hope this will evolve and get better and better each time because it really does deserve attention.
I’ve had some very good writers and some good writers who could be a lot better; I feel one thing that writers should work on and in their academic endeavours as well is their writing skills. A lot of them use a train of thought method of writing, with drawn out sentences. You can definitely see the progress they make when you point things out to them and get them to correct things on their own by thinking critically of their own writing skills. I know for myself even though I am the editor I know that if someone picks up one of my papers they will find a lot of mistakes and I think that’s important for everyone to do, to notice the pattern and find out what they are doing wrong.
HC McGill: On the subject of writing. Whose your favourite author/writer? or Book?
MM: Well, my favourite book is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
HC McGill: I read that! That’s one of my favourite books as well.
MM: It’s translated from Spanish in to English.
I went to this bookstore and this guy came up to me and asked me what I was looking for. He advised me on two books: Pillars of the Earth, which is a gigantic, 900-page book, and The Shadow of the Wind. I started reading Pillars of the Earth but then I ended up donating the book to a library (laughs). I read up to 300 pages of it but it was all just descriptions so I was like, “I can’t do this.” So then I picked up The Shadow of the Wind. I kind of love/hate that guy for making me read Pillars of the Earth but I love him for The Shadow of the Wind.
HC McGill: Before graduating, tell me about your best experience at McGill.
MM: Oooh. That’s really difficult to pinpoint but maybe the most extended, best experience was first year in Rez. Just living with them – with my friends – was just the best experience. We were 19 people in the house, and most of us were engaged with each other and we just clicked. We were very lucky for a such large group of people to come together since we’ve heard so [many] horror stories about dramas in other houses. We actually had a very, very fun year, and we are still friends and hang out very often.
HC McGill: Your plans after graduation?
MM: Well, that’s actually the exciting part since there are two offers that I’m deciding on: McGill offered me a 2-year fellowship with one year in Paris and one year at McGill, and Cambridge offered me admissions for a masters in International Relations. I just found out a few days ago.
HC McGill: Wow! What are you going to do?!
MM: I’m leaning towards Cambridge.
HC McGill: I’m so happy for you! Have you celebrated yet?
MM: Thank you! Well, I’m still on the edge of a decision so I haven’t felt like a celebration is the proper way to go. My stomach is still in a knot trying to decide on it. I’m considering the financial side of things carefully. I’m still waiting on a fellowship for Cambridge as well. So fingers crossed for that.
HC McGill: Do you plan to keep writing after university?
MM: Yes, of course. I’m going to try and get back to writing for myself, which I haven’t been faithful to as I used to be. [Academics have] been clouding my mind so it’s hard getting any creative writing going.
HC McGill: Any last words before your graduate?
MM: Thank you to everyone [who has] helped me in these 4 years, and has made all the burdens lighter!
The photos were provided by the interviewee.