Category: Publication opportunities

CFP JIIC issue: Memory, Culture and Difference

Journal of Intercultural and International Communication
Special issue: Memory, Culture, and Difference

Special issue editors:
Jolanta A. Drzewiecka, The E. R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University
Susan Owen, Communication Studies, University of Puget Sound
Peter Ehrenhaus, Communication and Theater, Pacific Lutheran University

Recent events highlight the continuing importance of memory and forgetting to negotiations of identities and allegiances cross cultural borders.

Most recently, the protests against the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and reactions to them, exposed different memories, forgetting, and willful ignorance of violence against African Americans. Last year, scholars working at the US Holocaust Museum concluded after long research that many more ordinary people participated in the genocide of Jews in many more sites and in mundane ways than had been previously thought. But this is not how Shoah is remembered. Such examples abound and highlight difference, hegemonic closure and contestation as key factors shaping memories.

Memories define who belongs and who does not, as well as who and what are worth remembering, and who and what are not. Creative, limited and purposeful, memory serves present needs and expresses points of contention, anxiety and negotiation within and among groups. Some memories attain cultural legitimacy and become interpretive frames through which groups shape their identities and their engagement in other cultural practices. There are memories that luxuriate in public repetition and affirmation by official commemorations. Other memories are forgotten and/or purposefully pushed away, ignored, and denied only to reemerge at cultural junctures for however brief contentious moments. At the same time, counter-memories hold tenaciously against prevailing versions of the past.

Memory has not been a key focus area for intercultural scholars, with some notable exceptions. Thus, this special issue will address intersections between and among memory, culture and difference. We seek submissions that explicate memory as a site of struggle, exchange, engagement, and contestation in ways that highlight intercultural communication. Submissions should propose theoretical innovations on the basis of critical and in-depth analyses written in an engaging style. They should address culture as a fluid zone of struggle over meaning and difference as relational and dynamic including race, ethnicity, gender, national, sexual orientation, class and other relations.

Submissions addressing the following and other topics are welcome:
Memories and group identities, belonging, and relations;
Communities of memory;
Place and emplacement of memories: museums, memorials, ruins and other memory sites;
Media representations (news and entertainment);
National, cosmopolitan, transnational, and diasporic memories: how memories circulate, intersect, and contest each other, how they are rearticulated, how they shape belonging within different scales (local, national, regional, global), how they reaffirm or contest these scales;
Relationships between history and memory;
Affect, power and ideology;
Technologies of memory;
Memories and their political uses;
Remembering, forgetting, amnesia;
Cultural trauma

Submission information
Manuscripts are due by June 1st, 2015. Manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout, prepared in accordance with APA 6th ed. and should not exceed 9000 words, inclusive of notes and reference matter. To facilitate the blind, peer review process, all identifying references to the author(s) should be removed. Manuscripts need to adhere to the instructions for authors for the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and uploaded to ScholarOne Manuscripts. We ask that submitting author(s) indicate on the title page “for consideration in the special issue on memory.” Direct inquiries regarding the special issue to Jolanta A. Drzewiecka, A. Susan Owen, and Peter Ehrenhaus at memoryspecialissue@gmail.com

CFP International Communication and Development

Call for papers
Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition 2016: Volume 9, Issue 1
International Communication and Development

Guest Editors:
Dr. Jean-Jacques Bogui
Dr. Carmen Rico
Dr. Christian Agbobli
Dr. Oumar Kane
(Université du Québec à Montréal)

In the late 1950s, a reflection on the potential of the media as a vector for development opened a communicational perspective on international development issues. For the proponents of this approach, it was enough to inject into the social body a certain amount of technical knowledge, which facilitated the flow of information causing a positive reaction of Third World populations to social, technological, and economic progress. Critics of this approach were numerous and took shape in the response of dependency theories. The emergence of international communication and development research field was partly the result of this heated debate.

This field of research has experienced a second wave due to work of the MacBride Commission initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The work of this committee focused on communication systems, such as the impact of international communication on national development and influence of transnational corporations in Third World countries. The oppressive cultural North/South relations resulting from the stranglehold of North media organizations over those of Third World has attracted attention. The commission called for a North/South dialogue to promote the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and encouraged the promotion of alternative media as opposed to mass media. The 1980 MacBride report entitled Many Voices One World that resulted from the work of the commission crystallized debates and issues around the question of an information and communication order at the core of which were the international news agencies.

In the early 1990s, a new approach to the field of international communication and development emphasized the importance of telecommunications infrastructure in the development process. The World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva (Switzerland) in 2003 and in Tunis (Tunisia) in 2005 gave prominent attention to the question of the digital divide between the North and the South. Thus, an important debate appears in this field. On one hand, views based on econometric studies defend the thesis that there is a correlation between the rate of equipment telecommunications infrastructure and economic development, given that information and communication technologies are another chance to allow Third World countries to catch up with the West (leapfrogging). On the other hand, critics of a techno-deterministic utopia fiercely oppose this theoretical approach.

In the last few years we assisted to a broadening of the problematization with the inclusion of social and political aspects (sustainable development, gender issues, human rights, ICT and social movements, public sphere, governance, postcolonial studies, etc.).

This special issue dedicated to international communication and development will revisit this field of study. It will also address new approaches that have emerged in the context of globalization and emerging technologies. This special issue seeks theoretical, analytic, critical, empirical, and comparative submissions that specifically discuss, but are not limited to, the following topics:
-Information Technology and development
-Digital divide and digital solidarity
-Digital technologies and world conflicts
-Communication and international politics
-Globalization of information
-Communication and cultural diversity
-Imperialism and cultural domination

The Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition welcomes high-quality, original submissions on related topics to the above theme. Authors are strongly encouraged to contribute to the development of communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical research or present case studies, use critical discourses, and/or set out innovative research methodologies. The Journal is a bilingual (English and French) open-access online academic refereed publication that aims to advance research and understanding of communication and media in Canada and around the globe.

Deadline: March 15th, 2016
Submissions: Papers (5,000 to 7,500 words), review articles of more than one book (2,500 to 3,000 words), and book reviews (1,000 to 1,200 words).
Method:  All manuscripts must be submitted electronically as Word Document attachments, directly to Dr. Jean-Jacques Bogui.
Guidelines Available
Decision: April 30th, 2016
Publication: June 15th, 2016

CFP Multicultural Media and Immigrant Integration

CALL FOR PAPERS
Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition Vol 8, Iss 2 (2015) Multicultural Media and Immigrant Integration
Guest Editor: Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed, University of Ottawa

Multicultural media, also known as “ethnic media”, consisting of print, broadcast, and electronic media and intended for ethno-cultural communities, are important resources for immigrants. These diverse forms of media play an important role in meeting different information needs of immigrants.
For example, multicultural media are important sources of, and channels for the delivery of settlement, government, ethno-cultural, and home country news, information, and services for immigrants.

The proliferation of multicultural media during recent decades has produced much scholarly and journalistic works, which have focused on multicultural media’s function in helping immigrants adapt and adjust to the new host country and preserve their cultural heritage, as well as in contributing to their social isolation in the host country. The role of multicultural media in immigrants’ inclusion/segregation in the host society remains a growing concern among researchers and practitioners. With the changing media landscape through the rise of the Internet, the proliferation of digital media and the growth of mobile devices, as well as international migration increasing in scale, it has become all the more important for researchers and practitioners to further discuss, debate, and document different aspects of the role of multicultural media in the integration of immigrants.

This special issue of the Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition aims to address opportunities and challenges that multicultural media represent for immigrant integration, from a multidisciplinary perspective, including communication, media studies, information studies, geography, political science, political economy, sociology, law, international relations, and other fields. To that end, the special issue will consider theoretical, analytic, critical, empirical, and comparative submissions on topics that include, but not limited to:
▪ challenges of multicultural media ▪ concepts and theories relevant to the study of multicultural media ▪ immigrants’ access to, and experiences with multicultural media ▪ multicultural media and immigrants’ civic engagement ▪ multicultural media and immigrants’ healthcare, socio-economic, and security issues ▪ multicultural media and social inclusion: sense of belonging and community building ▪ multicultural media uses and gratifications ▪ multiculturalism, integration, and social cohesion ▪ the role of multicultural media in immigrants’ integration into society

The Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition welcomes high- quality, original submissions on related topics to the above theme. Authors are strongly encouraged to contribute to the development of communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical research or present case studies, use critical discourses, and/or set out innovative research methodologies. The Journal is bilingual (English and French) open-access online academic refereed publication that aims to advance research and understanding of communication and media in Canada and around the globe.

Deadline: September 15th, 2015
Submissions: Papers (5,000 to 7,500 words), review articles of more than one book (2,500 to 3,000 words), and book reviews (1,000 to 1,200 words).
Method: All manuscripts must be submitted electronically as Word Document attachments to Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed.
Guidelines available
Decision: October 30th, 2015
Publication: December 15th, 2015

CFP Separately Together: Ethnographic Engagements of the City

Call for Chapters: Separately Together: Ethnographic Engagements of the City
Editors: Ahmet Atay, College of Wooster
Jay Brower, Western Connecticut State University

As communicative, cultural, and political space, cities present a confluence of racial, ethnic, national, sexual and socioeconomic experiences around which human communities take shape. This shaping forms a germinal point of mass cultural life.

City planners contribute to this process by deciding where buildings will go and neighborhoods rise, and, as constituent features, who we interact with, how we get there, and why we choose city life. Urban geography, then, becomes the framework around which expressions of complex human living constitute socially located performances generated by bodies in city space. Flowing from these experiences, boundaries and possibilities arise that define cultures of “the city.” In this edited book, contributors will focus on theorizing the notion of “the city” as a communicatively constituted cultural space. Submissions will develop situated, reflexive ethnographic examinations of “the city” that show the complex, multidimensional ways in which cities produce social meaning. Contributions that feature U.S. domestic and/or international city sites may explore, but are not limited to, the following areas of focus:
– Cities as organic space
– Experiences of class, race, nationality and diaspora
– Experiences of gender and sexuality with the city landscape
– Global cities and movement
– Cities in decay
– Cities and consumer culture
– City and the notion of differences
– Cities and borders (both physical and cultural)
– Mapping the city, visualizing space
– City and leisure
– City and environment
– City and technology/mechanization
– City and everyday life
– City and memory
– City and urban economics
– City and the production of economic class
– Urban lives
– City and travel/transportation
– Walking in the city
– City and labor history

Please send proposals of no more than 500 words to Ahmet Atay by April 1, 2015.

Chapter submissions of approximately 6,000 words in length will be submitted by August 1, 2015 with citations prepared in the MLA style. The editors will review submitted chapters. We welcome inquiries from authors.

CFP Theorizing Homogenizing Discourse: Japan

Call for Chapters
Theorizing Homogenizing Discourse: Japan, a Case Study

Anthology Editors:
Satoshi Toyosaki, Ph.D.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Shinsuke Eguchi, Ph.D.
University of New Mexico

Japan is heterogeneous and culturally diverse. However, Japan has socially, culturally, politically, and intellectually constructed and, some cases, insisted its distinct and homogeneous identity. Recently, such a national identity construction has been rightfully questioned and challenged by Japan’s culturally diverse groups and research activities. The primary focus of this anthology lies at the mysterious and discursive system that regenerates the illusion of Japan as a homogenous nation. We look for chapters that, first, investigate the discursive push-and-pull between the homogenizing and heterogenizing discourses at various cultural fronts, particularly from the critical intercultural communication perspective, and that, second, examine and critique those homogenizing discourses. We hope that this anthology helps theorize the complex push-and-pull of homogenizing and heterogenizing discourses focusing on their co-constitutive and responsive relations, instead of situating them simply as the oppositional.

Topics/research sites/areas of interest include, but are not limited to, gender/sex, LGBTQQ, Japanese regions, Gaijin identity, multiracial/national Japanese, Zainichi-identities, media, sport fandom, tourism, foreign labor, and anti-/pro-Japan rhetoric. Research sites (data sources) can be both Japan-domestic and international. We are working toward making a persuasive proposal for this anthology. In so doing, we seek exciting chapter contributors, innovative research projects, and theoretically rigorous chapters. For more details, please don’t hesitate to contact us at the aforementioned email addresses. Please send us your 200-word abstract that identifies your research goal(s), data/artifacts, and methodological approach(es) by March 15th, 2015. Your abstract needs to be saved in MS word format and sent to both Satoshi Toyosaki and Shinsuke Eguchi. The anticipated timeline for a complete manuscript is July 31, 2015.

CFP (Un)Civil Society in Digital China

Call for Proposals
(Un)civil Society in Digital China
Special Issue for Publication in the International Journal of Communication

Editors
Min Jiang (Ph.D.), Associate Professor of Communication Studies, UNC Charlotte, USA
Ashley Esarey (Ph.D.), Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada

Rationale
Civil society’s role in furthering democratization and the development of a public sphere has long attracted scholars whose work has traced the historical roots of civil society in China and celebrated its emergence offline and online. While decades of economic reforms have empowered myriad civil society organizations, volatile contention has arisen among social groups along ideological, class, ethnic, racial and regional fault lines. Uncivil exchanges, amplified by the Internet and social media, often work at cross purposes and fail to produce consensus or solutions to public problems. These disputes, and the underlying social/political/cultural schisms, threaten to undermine constructive citizen engagement and the promise of civil society in China. They also challenge the notion of a unified civil society standing in solidarity against a monolithic, authoritarian state.

Consider the following examples:
–   The Internet flame war between Han Han and Fang Zhouzi that delegitimized the notion of “public intellectual” in China
–   Left-Right debate amongst China’s intellectual communities that spill over into street brawls
–   Vigilantism and breaches of privacy (i.e. instances of “human flesh search engine” and the Guo Meimei Red Cross scandal)
–   Online conflicts between “haves” and “have-nots” amidst extreme inequality
–   Virtual contention between Han and ethnic minorities over the status of Tibet and Xinjiang
–   Racial discourse on mixed-race Chinese and immigrants
–   Clashes over Taiwan’s “sunflower movement” expressed on the Internet
–   Divergent online opinions about the “umbrella movement” in Hong Kong

This special issue invites contributors to unpack the multilayered, multidimensional reality and contradictions that define the Chinese Internet, focusing on the big-picture ramifications of online contention. With a population of nearly 650 million, Chinese Internet users are more diverse than the tech-savvy, liberal elites who first went online two decades ago. The groups active online today include politically conservative, nationalistic, apathetic, and even reactionary individuals. They also evince complicated attitudes towards the state, business and other demographic segments. The complex make-up of Chinese civil society and the nature of its self-representation thus challenge, on the one hand, an idealized notion of civil society that is independent from the private sphere, government and business, and on the other, the implicit assumption prevalent in Chinese Internet studies of a liberal subject demanding social justice, media freedom and political reform.

Questions for contributors:
–   What are the characteristics of Chinese civil society? What is its potential or limitations? Does the proliferation of the Internet in China necessarily empower civil society in China? Is the opposite possible?
–   Is civil society always civil? Can it be uncivil, fractious and even reactionary? How does the Chinese Internet amplify or mitigate (un)civil tendencies? To what extent is online public debate or collective action becoming more fragmentary, working at cross purposes, or resulting in “echo chamber” effects and polarization? Do nationalistic, jingoistic and even reactionary forces overwhelm and dominate “civil” discourse?
–   Are the “uncivil” tendencies of the Chinese Internet inevitable in a society composed of increasingly diverse groups? To what extent do commercial and state institutions influence uncivil tendencies online through intervention or even manipulation? What roles do powerful Internet businesses and elite personalities play?
–   Under what circumstances might incivility online prove advantageous for political or social change?
–   What evidence do we have for (un)civil society in China? Examples might include the formation of informal groups and formal organizations, discourses, and their intersection with collective action, social movements, and other social behavior.

Contributions to this special issue will map a spectrum of key actors, issues, and orientations of a contentious civil society that has been submerged under a larger body of research on China and established democracies that assume state-society confrontation and fail to explore intra-societal tensions. Collectively, the contributions promise to produce a theoretically-interesting and empirically rich body of work that expands and deepens Chinese Internet research dominated by work focused on such topics as Chinese Internet censorship and propaganda, online activism, civic associations, deliberation and online culture. Insights generated from this special issue will in turn inform and advance research on civil society by debating its essence and examining the conditions conducive or unfavorable to its growth, with implications going beyond China. Although contributions will emphasize what polarizes Chinese society and sometimes seem to tear it apart, we welcome contributions that analyze the prospects for rising above incivility, bridging sociopolitical schisms, and building consensus without compromising self-expression and personal security.

Affiliated Conference:
We encourage interested contributors to attend the 13th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC) that includes as its theme “(un)civil society in digital China.” The conference will be held at the University of Alberta, Canada on May 27-28, 2015. The deadline for submitting paper abstracts (400 words) is February 15, 2015.

Proposed Schedule
Abstract Deadline Jul 1, 2015
Notice of Abstract Acceptance Aug 1, 2015
Full Paper Deadline Jan 1, 2016
Reviews Deadline Mar 1, 2016
Revisions Deadline May 1, 2016
Finalized Paper Jul 1, 2016

Paper Guidelines
–   Submitted papers will go through double-blind peer review.
–   The maximum word count is 9,000 words (including the abstract, keywords, images with captions, references, and appendices, if any).
–   Abstracts submitted for pre-screening should be less than 500 words.
–   Submitted full papers are not guaranteed acceptance.
–   Formatting of the special issue follows the general guidelines of the International Journal of Communication (IJoC).

CFP Communication Yearbook 40

Communication Yearbook 40
A Publication of the International Communication Association
Editor: Elisia L. Cohen
Deadline: February 15, 2015
NOTE: Deadline extended to March 1, 2015

CY 40 is a forum for the exchange of interdisciplinary and internationally diverse scholarship relating to communication in its many forms. Specifically, we are seeking state-of-the-discipline literature reviews, meta-analyses, and essays that advance knowledge and understanding of communication systems, processes, and impacts. Submitted manuscripts should provide a rigorous assessment of the status, critical issues and needed directions of a theory or body of research; offer new communication theory or additional insights into communication systems, processes, policies and impacts; and/or expand the boundaries of the discipline. In all cases, submissions should be comprehensive and thoughtful in their synthesis and analysis, and situate a body of scholarship within a larger intellectual context. For CY 40, the editorial board also welcomes essays that advance knowledge and understanding of communication research methodologies and applications.

Details
*Submit manuscripts electronically via a Word attachment to Elisia L. Cohen, Editor
*Submissions for CY 40 will be considered from January 1, 2015 through February 15, 2015
*Use APA style, 6th edition
*Include a cover letter indicating how the manuscript addresses the CY 40 call for papers
*Prepare manuscripts for blind review, removing all identifiers
*Include a title page as a separate document that includes contact information for all authors
*Following Communication Yearbook’s tradition of considering lengthier manuscripts, initial manuscript submissions may range from 6,500 to 13,000 words (including tables, endnotes, references).
*Incomplete submissions not adhering to the above journal guidelines will be returned to authors for revision.

For more information about CY 40 or this call for submissions, please contact Dr. Elisia L. Cohen, Editor, Communication Yearbook.

Call for Book Chapters: Video Games in East Asia

Contributors are sought for an interdisciplinary book on video games in East Asia to be edited by Austin Lee and Alexis Pulos and published by Palgrave Macmillan for its East Asian Popular Culture Series. The series was launched in 2014 in order to meet an increased interest in the subject among scholars of various disciplines in recent years. East Asia refers to China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of popular culture studies, the series will accept submissions from different social sciences and humanities disciplines that use a variety of methods.

Dedicated to video games in East Asia, this book examines the development and prominence of video games within historical, cultural, industrial, and global contexts. The editors are seeking contributions that cover a wide range of interdisciplinary work and that address topics such as:
–    Quantitative and qualitative approaches to industry, content, culture and players;
–    Studies examining eSports events, the politics of games, gamer culture and popular culture;
–    Studies examining the influence of political, economical and cultural factors on video game content, platforms (e.g., PC, console, mobile) and genres (e.g., RPG, FPS, strategy, sports);
–    Investigations of games, players, narratives, ludology or game environments;
–    Analysis of the ways technologies, celebrity status, and subculture (e.g., cosplay) impact both local and global perspective of gaming;
–    Historical analyses of game developments, cultural reactions, or significant moments;
–    Analyses of future trends and challenges for East Asian gaming culture and industry;
–    Research that explores the realities of power relations and oppression that stem from pervasive stereotypes of race, class, gender, sexual orientation or place within the context of East Asian games and players;
–    Ethnographic, rhetorical and other qualitative research on topics around video games.

Please submit a 500-word abstract, current contact information along with brief biography (or CV) as Word attachments to both Alexis Pulos and Austin Lee by February 15, 2015. Authors will be notified of the outcome of their submission within four weeks. The deadline for completed chapters (which should not exceed 9,000 words, inclusive of references) is May 31, 2015.

All submissions should be in MS Word format. The submission of images where appropriate, is also welcome.

Public Anthropology Competition 2015

International Publishing Competition
California Series In Public Anthropology

The California Series in Public Anthropology encourages scholars in a range of disciplines to discuss major public issues in ways that help the broader public understand and address them. Two presidents (Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton) as well as three Nobel Laureates (Amartya Sen, Jody Williams, and Mikhail Gorbachev) have contributed to the Series either through books or forwards.  Its list includes such prominent authors as Paul Farmer co-founder of Partners in Health, Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard and United Nations Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti.

Each year the Series highlights a particular problem in its international call for manuscripts.  The focus this year will be on STORIES OF INEQUALITY.

We are particularly interested in authors who convey both the problems engendered by inequality as well as ways for addressing it.  Prospective authors might ask themselves:  How can they make their study “come alive” for a range of readers through the narration of powerful stories?  They might, for example, focus on the lives of a few, select individuals tracing the problems they face and how they, to the best of their abilities, cope with them.  Prospective authors might examine a specific institution and how, in various ways, it perpetuates inequality.  Or authors might describe a particular group that seeks to address a facet of the problem.  There are no restrictions on how prospective authors address STORIES OF INEQUALITY – only an insistence that the proposed publication draw readers to its themes through the inclusion of powerful stories about real people.  The series is directed at the general public as well as college students.

The University of California Press in association with the Center for a Public Anthropology will review proposals for publication independent of whether the manuscripts themselves have been completed. We are open to working with authors as they wind their way through the writing process.  The proposals can describe work the author wishes to undertake in the near future or work that is currently underway. The proposals submitted to the competition should be 3-4,000 words long and describe both the overall work as well as a general summary of what is (or will be) in each chapter.  We expect the completed, publishable manuscripts to be between 250-300 pages (or 60,000-100,000 words) long excluding footnotes and references.  Examples of the types of analyses we are looking for include:
*Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
*Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherin Boo
*Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
*American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare by Jason DeParle
*Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
*There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America by Alex Kotlowitz

We are interested in establishing committed, supportive relationships with authors that insures their books are not only published but are well publicized and recognized both within and beyond the academy.  We are committed to insuring the success of winning proposals.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS APRIL 21, 2015
Submissions should be emailed to: bookseries@publicanthropology.org with the relevant material enclosed as attachments. They can also be sent to: Book Series, 707 Kaha Street, Kailua, HI. Questions regarding the competitions should be directed to Dr. Rob Borofsky at: bookseries@publicanthropology.org.

All entries will be judged by the Co-Editors of the California Series in Public Anthropology: Rob Borofsky (Center for a Public Anthropology & Hawaii Pacific University) and Naomi Schneider (University of California Press).

CFP Truth in the Public Sphere

Jason Hannon is seeking contributors for a volume on truth, communication, and the public sphere. If you are interested in participating in this project, please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words, along with a brief bio, to Jason Hannon by February 1, 2015.

A. AIM
The proposed book, Truth in the Public Sphere, will explore the role of truth in different domains of social and political life. It will present a new set of expository essays from a variety of theoretical and philosophical perspectives. The aim is to challenge conventional thinking on truth by investigating the meaning and power of truth in different dimensions of the public sphere.

B. DESCRIPTION
Truth is a basic and primordial concept. It has long been and remains indispensible to multiple domains of thought and practice, including law, government, science, and religion. In the humanities, however, the idea of truth is commonly regarded with suspicion and cynicism. Truth is seen as an antiquated metaphysical illusion at best and an instrument of power and coercion at worst. The idea of truth therefore elicits strikingly different attitudes. For millennia, philosophers have debated the meaning and possibility of truth, proposing a range of complex theories. However, in the twentieth century, philosophers such as G. E. Moore, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Alfred Tarski have argued that truth is indefinable. In a similar vein, Donald Davidson has argued that instead of seeking to define truth, we should instead try to understand what role it plays in observable human behavior (i.e. linguistic interaction). More recently, the pragmatist philosopher Jeffrey Stout has argued that truth matters to democracy. This volume takes its cue from Davidson and Stout by exploring the role of truth in our social and political world from the perspective of communication. To this end, the volume examines the function and value of truth in four dimensions of the public sphere: 1) language and discourse, 2) ethics and justice, 3) journalism and politics, and 4) media, art, and aesthetics.

C. TARGET AUDIENCE
Although this volume will speak to a general humanities audience, it has been designed for students and scholars of rhetoric, media studies, communication theory, and the philosophy of communication.

D. SCOPE, CONTENT, METHODOLOGY
The proposed volume has been divided into four parts: 1) language and discourse; 2) ethics and justice; 3) journalism and politics; and 4) media, art, aesthetics. The essays in the volume will answer questions such as the following:
– What role does truth play in language and communication?
– Is communication possible without a commitment to truth?
– What role does truth play in ethics and social justice?
– Do we live in a post-truth world?
– What are the consequences of post-truth journalism?
– How do media and communication professionals conceptualize truth?
– What is the connection between truth and aesthetics?
– How do music and art capture truth?
– How does truth function in comedy, especially in political satire?

E. TABLE OF CONTENTS
We are seeking contributions for each of the following sections. Please note that we are open to suggestions for other topics.

PART I: LANGUAGE & DISCOURSE
Suggested topics include:
– Rhetoric
– Genealogy
– Hermeneutics
– Deconstruction
– Critical Theory
– Pragmatism
– Analytic and Post-Analytic Philosophy

PART II: ETHICS & JUSTICE
Suggested topics include:
– Feminism, truth, and women’s emancipation
– Postcolonialism, truth, and resistance
– Truth in the thought and speeches of Mahatma Gandhi
– Truth in the thought and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.
– Jacques Ranciere, truth, and education

PART III: JOURNALISM & POLITICS
Suggested topics include:
– Media Witnessing
– Post-truth journalism
– Post-truth politics
– Wikileaks

PART IV: MEDIA, ART, AND AESTHETICS
Suggested topics include:
– Truth in music
– Truth in visual art (including painting, photography, and street art)
– Truth in humor (especially satire)
– Truth in film

F. ABSTRACTS
If you are interested in participating in this project, please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words, along with a brief bio, to Jason Hannon by February 1, 2015. Those whose abstracts are accepted will be asked to submit their proposed chapter by August 31st, 2015.