A Century of Communication Studies
CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
The editors (Pat J. Gehrke, University of South Carolina and William M. Keith, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), in cooperation with the National Communication Association, invite chapter proposals for the National Communication Association’s 100-year anniversary volume, contracted for publication by Routledge in 2014.
We invite authors to propose chapters that promise to accomplish four things:
1. Take as its central focus a clustered theme that bridges the disciplinary sub-divisions. Recommended themes include:
*Speech / Speaking / Voice / Orality
*Identity / Identification / Self
*Context / Situation / Event
*Interdisciplinarity / Disciplinarity
*Politics / Power / Efficacy / the Political
*Science / Method / Epistemologies
*Psychology / Mind / Thought
*Body / Embodiment / Performance
*Relating / Dialogue / Discussion / Relationships
*Organizing / Sociality / Movements / Collectives
*Purpose / Goal / Outcome / Effect
*Audience / Listener / Persona / Receiver
*Media / Medium / Mediation
*Meaning / Significance
2. Give consideration to the past 100 years of the discipline, including teaching and research as appropriate. This includes finding a lineage, genealogy, or history that can weave the clustered theme into a relationship with the discipline’s history and story since the early twentieth century. Chapters should adopt a critical and thoughtful relationship to the discipline and its history, rather than offering uncritical adulation or simplistic idealization. We encourage authors to consider opportunities not only to celebrate the accomplishments of the discipline, but to explore the challenges and controversies in communication scholarship. Such studies may likewise offer perspectives on possibilities and prospects for future research, scholarship, and teaching.
3. Use a variety of sources, as appropriate, including journals, books, and archival resources. These sources might include our current journals back to their beginnings, journals no longer published (such as the Public Speaking Review), books, collected papers of specific scholars, and the archives of associations, departments, or institutions.
4. Proposals should include a plan for having a complete draft of no more than 8,000 words to the editors by September of 2013.
Each chapter should cut orthogonally across the current categories and subdivisions of communication studies, drawing together diverse materials to explore the richness of the communication literature by following concepts rather than professional affiliations. Chapters need not be completely discrete and we anticipate some overlap between them. Each recommended theme is specific enough to provide a core node for the organization of a history, and a touchstone for both the authors and readers. However, each is also broad enough and dispersed enough across the specializations within the discipline that the authors will need to account for a variety of orientations and methods in analyzing the function of that theme for communication studies. Each theme has its challenges and its insights, and each has made a strong appearance in our scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as our research. Likewise, these themes can be traced not only across the range of our sub-fields but at least back to the earliest years of the national association. Chapter proposals organized around additional themes are welcome, but should likewise meet these same general criteria.
Proposals should be 500-1000 words, submitted along with a copy of the authors’ curricula vitae, by electronic mail to Pat Gehrke at PJG@PatGehrke.net by August 15, 2012. We prefer Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file format, if possible. Microsoft Word (doc/docx) or Open Document (odt) are also acceptable. We especially encourage proposals from pairs or small groups of authors who represent a diversity of backgrounds, methods, or academic ranks. All proposals will receive confirmation of receipt within three business days. The editors will finalize the list of contributors by early September 2012.
Please direct questions or inquiries to Pat Gehrke or Bill Keith
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 