Category: Publication opportunities

CFP Media and Intersectional Identities

“Publication

Call for submissions: Proposals for edited volume: Companion on Media and Intersectional Identities. Deadline: 1 September 2024 (entire chapter).

Volume Editors: Kalyani Chadha (Northwestern University) and Linda Steiner (University of Maryland)

The editors are seeking proposals for chapters for an edited book to be titled Companion on Media and Intersectional Identities. The editors have signed a contract with Routledge, a leading publisher of work about media and journalism. They hope to obtain initial drafts by September 2024.

The collection will focus on issues of intersectional identity—a fluid and expansive category encompassing race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and class, as well as geography, political affiliation, cultural taste, and interests. Meanwhile, we see the term media broadly, as including, among others, journalism, advertising, films, television, social media, and gaming. We seek contributions from scholars across the globe— especially those focusing on contexts in the Global South, who through varied modes of qualitative inquiry, engage in the critical analysis of identity in relation to production, representation and audience meaning-making while also interrogating the ways in which identity issues turn out to be central to ideological contestation around the role of media in society. Chapters may investigate but are not limited to:

  • the implications of such contestation both in terms of mediating individual and group subjectivities
  • questions about power and authority
  • implications of identity with regard to content production (for instance, in terms of who has access and the ability to enter this arena)
  • specific patterns of representation in specific forms of media
  • various kinds of audiences’ responses to media content focused on issues of identity
  • Please feel free to submit a 250 – 500 word abstract or to discuss a potential idea by contacting either Kalyani Chadha (Northwestern University)  or Linda Steiner.

CFP Human Communication Research: Communication & the Self

“Publication

Call for articles for Human Communication Research: Special Issue on  Communication and the Self. Deadline: 1 March 2024 (abstract only).

Guest Editors: Markus Appel (University of Würzburg), and Amanda Holmstrom (Michigan State University)

The study of communication as it relates to the self boasts a rich scholarly history. Dating back over a century, this research encompasses a wide range of theories and concepts (e.g., social identity, self-knowledge, self-disclosure, self-presentation) that describe and explain how individuals think, feel, and communicate about themselves. The rise of digital technologies, ranging from social media to virtual reality and artificial intelligence, has introduced new dimensions to the study of communication and the self. At the same time, communication researchers are faced with new challenges as family structures and societies continue to evolve. Given the rich, yet often fragmented nature of the literature, it is a fitting time for a special issue dedicated to work that sheds light on the multifaceted ways in which communication both influences and reflects aspects of the self in online and offline contexts. For this special issue, authors are invited to submit theoretically-informed proposals that enhance our insight and understanding of the study of communication as it relates to the self. Editors encourage proposals focusing on a wide range of social, relational, cultural, and organizational contexts from various theoretical traditions. For instance, topics could include (but are not limited to) empirical inquiries or essays on (a) communication and the formation of cultural and social identities; (b) interpersonal interactions that contribute to the development and/or maintenance of the self-concept and/or self-esteem; (c) the role of culture in self-presentation; (d) stories and the self; (e) intersections between the self and social media/online interactions; (f) the role of the self in interactions in virtual realities, with AI, or with robots; and g) self-related questions in applied settings (e.g., organizational communication; health communication). They encourage proposals from a variety of scholarly areas and welcome all methodological approaches. Both empirical research reports and theoretical or conceptual essays are welcome.

CFP Culture, Education, and Future

“Publication

Call for articles or special issue proposals for the new journal Culture, Education, and Future. Deadline: ongoing.

Culture, Education, and Future (CEF) is an open-access and peer-reviewed international journal that publishes research aiming to improve education nature and knowledge production by focusing on how culture shapes education in light of current developments. As emphasized by Editor-in-Chief Russ Marion in the journal’s inaugural issue:

This journal, then, asks how cultural trends are influencing education and the future of education, for the good or the bad. We seek substantive, well-conceived and researched discussions of the nexuses between culture, education, and the future.

CEF welcomes research that uses any research method, including reviews, mixed methods studies, quantitative and qualitative research, and innovative research methods. The journal’s scope includes culture-centered educational studies that can directly or indirectly impact education stakeholders, decision-makers, and practitioners. At CEF, researchers from all types of educational institutions, including K–12 schools, colleges, and universities, adult education centers, non-governmental education groups, as well as those working on social, family, and community projects, are encouraged to submit their articles that address current and critical issues in the field. Studies in all fields of education and culture, including psychology, anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and communication, are the journal’s focus.

Anyone interested in discussion a special issue proposal should cntact Russ Marion (Editor-in-Chief in Culture, Education, and Future).

CFP Representing/Communicating the US in Local and Global Turmoil

“Publication

Call for chapters for Representing/Communicating the US in Local and Global Turmoil: From Wars to Contemporary Challenges. Deadline: 1 March 2024 (proposal only).

Editors: Mark Finney (Emory and Henry College) and Sudeshna Roy (Stephen F. Austin State University).

This book is among a slate of others being considered for adoption as a series by editors Victoria Ann Newsom (Olympic College) & Lara Lengel (Bowling Green State University) entitled Conflict, Culture, Communication from Lexington Books.

Premise

Views of the United States from a conflict standpoint can vary widely depending on the specific conflict, region, and the time period in question. Different countries and individuals may hold different perceptions of the US based on their own geopolitical interests, historical experiences, and cultural perspectives.

There are a wide range of communication subfields that interact with conflict and peace perceptions about the United States – intercultural communication, rhetoric, critical cultural communication, media studies, global communication and social change, philosophy, theory, and critique, etc. Similarly, scholars have identified different contexts within which the US conflict and peace perceptions unfold.

This book will be influenced by two important questions which have received less attention than they deserve: How do people, engaged in conflict with one another, come to understand their opponents and what roles do institutions, such as, media, international multilateral organizations, national ideological parties, etc., play in the formation and maintenance of beliefs about the others? This book takes the United States as its thematic center, and countries/communities with which the United States has conflict as the spokes. Each author in this volume will examine a contemporary or recent conflict involving the United States and, instead of centering representations in the United States, examine the representations of the United States – representations that cast the United States as the other. The editors believe that the scholarly questions and answers being developed in this book will make useful contributions to the development of knowledge about international conflict situations and conflict resolution, communications studies and international relations. Though designed for scholars, the chapters should be accessible by undergraduate and graduate level courses concerned with representation and conflict management.

(See attached PDF for the full description)

CFP Journal of Communication: Communication & Constitution: Exploring Classical & Emerging Topics Relationally

“Publication

Call for submissions: Journal of Communication Special issue: Communication and Constitution: Exploring Classical and Emerging Topics Relationally. Deadline: 1 November 2024.

Guest Editors: Mariaelena Bartesaghi (University of South Florida, USA), François Cooren (Université de Montréal, Canada), Jimmie Manning (University of Nevada, Reno, USA); Thomas Martine (Audencia Business School, France) and Cynthia Stohl (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA).

In his landmark 1999 article, Communication Theory as a Field, Robert T. Craig called for more dialogue between what he then identified as the seven traditions of communication (rhetoric, semiotics, phenomenology, cybernetic, socio-psychology, sociocultural theory and critical theory). This call was based on two principles: (1) the constitutive model of communication as a metamodel and (2) communication theory as metadiscourse. With his first principle, Craig invited us to acknowledge that each of these different traditions has its own way of thinking the world communicatively and that there is a real payoff in studying various phenomena as being communicatively constituted. With his second principle, he proposed that the communication discipline could be envisaged as a sort of metadiscourse, that is, a discourse about discourse by which we pursue the study of one of the most basic phenomena of our human condition: the act of communicating.

Almost 25 years later, this article can be said to have had a key influence on our field, as illustrated by the numerous research agendas that have implicitly or explicitly responded to Craig’s call. Consider for example, the Communication as Constitutive of Organization (CCO) approach, which positions communicative acts as the basic building blocks of organizational processes. There is also the constitutive approach to interpersonal and family communication studies, which shows that we co-create not only our relationships, but also our very selves in social interaction, as well as the communicative constitution of collective action, which demonstrates how online and offline political activities are first and foremost enacted through a logic of connective action.

All these approaches claim, in spite of their differences, that we should not only think of communication as something that happens in, say, organizations, families, or communities, but that these collectives should also be apprehended as constituted in communication. Each of these approaches indeed illustrates how thinking relationally about the world amounts to acknowledging that any being or phenomenon is literally made of/constituted by relations, a stance that obviously positions communication as the ideal discipline to address this type of ontological claim.

Against this background, this special issue of Communication Theory aims to address the following questions:

(1) What does a constitutive understanding of communication mean for the study of classical and emergent topics, as are identities, ecosystems, sustainability, technology, gender, ethnicity, organizations, relationships, coalitions, power, authority, creativity, discrimination, domination, disability, among others?

(2) How can a relational/constitutive perspective enable scholars to see empirical and theoretical linkages among the various subfields of communication. What do these linkages mean in practice?

(3) How are worlds communicatively constituted? That is, how is a phenomenon or even any state of being made of or constituted by communication?

(4) How might constitutive approaches place communication as a central action or activity by which topics/phenomena can be analyzed and explained?

(5) How can we make connections across theoretical traditions via embracing communication theory as a metadiscourse? And how might this shape how we think through our scholarship, especially in terms of theory/theorizing?

(6) How, in an increasingly globalized world, might scholars nurture and/or deconstruct the relations that constitute the various phenomena that we as communication scholars study?

If you’re interested in meeting the guest editors to discuss your submissions ideas, there is a Meet the Guest Editors online session on Wednesday, March 13 at 2:00pm (Eastern Time).

Microsoft Teams meeting: Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 225 762 371 891
Passcode: NQ7YNH

CFP New Journal: Public Humanities

“Publication

Call for submissions: Public Humanities, to be published by Cambridge University Press starting in 2024. Deadline: ongoing.

Editors: Jeffrey Wilson (Harvard University) and Zoe Hope Bulaitis (University of Birmingham).

Public Humanities is an international open-access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. It is designed to be an open-access forum for research from around the world and across the disciplines, engaging with a wide range of issues, authors, and readers and demonstrating the breadth, depth, and value of the humanities in its varied contributions to public life.

The humanities study the things humans make—our art, writings, thoughts, religions, governments, histories, technologies, and societies—helping us understand who we are, what we do, how we do it, why, and with what consequences. Honouring the capacious diversity of the humanities, Public Humanities is open to all disciplines, geographies, periods, methodologies, authors, and audiences. The journal is a rendezvous for civically engaged humanities work from (though not limited to) the fields of Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Classics, Cultural Studies, Disability Studies, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, Government, History, Law, Linguistics, Literary Studies, Performing Arts, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, Queer Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Visual Arts, and Women’s Studies.

The journal ranges from historical examples of the humanities at work in the world to theoretical debates about the field today, from governmental policy related to the humanities to scholarly interventions in on-going social problems. Public Humanities creates space for scholars, students, activists, policy-makers, professionals, practitioners, and non-specialists to explore our habits and histories, our art and ideas, our language and beliefs, our pasts, presents, and futures. The journal invites authors and readers to share humanities knowledge, apply it to our societies’ most pressing issues as they arise, and demonstrate the value of the humanities in new and engaging ways.

Public Humanities publishes four themed issues per year curated by guest editors, plus a constant feed of rapid-response commentary. Published digitally to enable speedy delivery to readers and maximum flexibility for authors, articles range from individual of-the-moment responses to roundtable discussions and full-length papers. Through active and rigorous commissioning and peer-review processes, a diverse and committed editorial collective, and a world-leading publishing team, Public Humanities offers a platform for scholarly exchange and exciting new applications of excellent humanities research.

 

CFP Journal of Communication: Qualitative Theorizing and Methodological Advancements

“Publication

Call for submissions: Journal of Communication Special issue: Qualitative Theorizing and Methodological Advancements. Deadline: 15 July 2024.

Guest Editors: Kristina M. Scharp (Rutgers University, USA), Elizabeth A. Hintz (University of Connecticut, USA), and Sandra Vera Zambrano (Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico).

This special issue of the Journal of Communication aims to highlight the qualitative communication research that provides important insights into what communicating is like, how it happens, and the institutional and ideological forces enabling and constraining what is possible. Qualitative scholarship is an integral part of communication research as it provides the nuance to discern what results actually mean, the situated understanding to account for the complexities inherent in communication, and the context to inspire hypothesis testing. Despite its promise, qualitative communication research has also long been criticized for being “too descriptive” or for its inability to generate theoretical frameworks and heuristics meaningful beyond a single case or isolated social context. Yet, this misnomer, which emphasizes generalizability at the expense of nuance and context, ironically contributes to the homogeneity of communication research (see #CommunicationSoWhite; Chakravartty et al., 2018) and leads to stagnation. To develop as a discipline, we must be more inclusive of different ways of knowing that allow researchers to ask new questions and address different goals.

CFP Journal of Communication: Time in Communication Research and Theories

“Publication

Call for submissions: Journal of Communication Special issue: Time in Communication Research and Theories. Deadline: 15 March 2024.

Guest Editors: Tai-Quan “Winson” Peng (Michigan State University, USA) and Zheng Joyce Wang (Ohio State University, USA)

Communication research embraces a constant ebb and flow of emerging and changing technologies, phenomena, concepts, methods, and theories. Trends evolve, ideas emerge, and paradigms shift. Amidst this ever-changing landscape of research, one constant remains unwavering: time. Time shapes the way we conceptualize, examine, and understand the complexities of communication representations, structures, relations, changes, and processes.

This special issue aims to propel time into the forefront of communication research. The guest editors encourage scholars to transcend mere methodological considerations and to challenge prevailing conceptions of time in communication research, such as viewing time solely as a limited resource or a linear progression. They invite communication scholars to explicate, elaborate, or conceptualize this fundamental dimension of communication, to delve into its intricacies and complexities, to explore its multifaceted meanings, and to construct and advance communication theories. Submissions should place time at the core of their research, shifting it from a mere backdrop or a control variable to a primary focus in theorizing or modeling communication.

CFP Feminist Pedagogy: Pedagogies of Peace

“Publication

Call for submissions: Feminist Pedagogy Special Issue: Pedagogies of Peace: Witnessing, Dialogue, and Collective Healing. Deadline: 8 January 2024 abstract; 26 February 2024 full paper.

Special Issue Editor: Caitlin Marie Miles (Denison University, USA).

In the last 20-25 years, our social and political worlds have been marked by a saturation of ongoing political, state-sanctioned, and extrajudicial violence, made all the more visible and palpable by the 24hr news cycle, live streaming, and ubiquity of social networking platforms. The lingering traumas and resultant violences from 9/11, U.S. invasion of Iraq, police killing of unarmed black men and women, civil war in Syria and Yemen, famine in the horn of Africa, coup-attempts stretching across the globe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, humanitarian crisis in Gaza and October 7th attacks, ethnic cleansing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in addition to other forms of structural violence that increasingly make “life” untenable for many of our most vulnerable neighbors. While these conflicts of the last two decades are certainly bound up in a globally intertwined military-industrial complex, they each resonate with us, our students, our campuses, and classrooms in unique and contingent ways. Moreover, while contending with the traumas of witnessing and experiencing these violences, we must find ways to center peace, dialogue, and community-centered forms of catharsis so as not to perpetuate the normalcy and ontology of war.

With this in mind, this special issue invites critical commentaries (1,000-1,200 words) and teaching/classroom strategies (1,500 – 2,500 words), which may include topics such as:

  • Teaching about and discussing political violence such as police brutality, war, ethnic cleansing/genocide, terrorism, and other forms of violence in ways that consider intersecting identities and positionality

  • Witnessing as a means of trauma-informed pedagogy and community-building in the classroom

  • Approaches to cultivating safe and brave classroom spaces when critically analyzing of complex, intertwined, and politically controversial conflicts

  • Centering stories and narratives of empowerment, peace, arts, and culture of communities and places stereotyped as violent in mainstream discourses

  • Strategies for connecting urgent and pressing current events to our various course themes

  • Media-making, journaling, and other forms of creative expression that foster understanding, catharsis, and/or healing

  • The role of setting ground rules and obtaining consent in class discussions on political/politicized violence

  • Reflections on successes AND failures in teaching and discussing violent, potentially traumatic, and/or triggering topics

Also of interest are Media Reviews of educational resources and documentaries useful for teaching on these subjects (500-1,000 words). They ask that media criticism be constructive in nature and largely positive. Reviews should note the scope and purpose of the work and its usefulness to educators. They are particularly interested in reviews that detail ways to use the media as a teaching tool.

CFP Children and Youth as ‘Sites of Resistance’ in Armed Conflict

“Publication

Call for submissions: Children and Youth as ‘Sites of Resistance’ in Armed Conflict, to be edited by Tamanna Shah and published by Emerald. Deadline: 15 November 2023, abstract only.

During the chaos and devastation of armed conflict, children and youth often emerge as powerful agents of change and resilience. “Children and Youth as ‘Sites of Resistance’ in Armed Conflict” is a compelling exploration of their profound roles as active participants, often functioning as sites of resistance within the complex dynamics of warfare. This title delves deep into the lived experiences of children and youth in conflict zones, shedding light on their diverse forms of resistance, agency, and resilience. It transcends conventional narratives that portray them solely as victims, offering a fresh perspective on their capacities to challenge and transform their circumstances. This title will be a compilation of articles providing insights into the global dimensions of children and youth in armed conflict, drawing from case studies and experiences across regions and contexts. It highlights the interconnectedness of youth-led resistance movements and their impact on global discourse and policy.

It is crucial to examine how children and youth are catalysts for peace and justice in conflict and post-conflict settings. The book examines their contributions to reconciliation, community rebuilding, and efforts to address the root causes of conflict. The aim is to include intersections of age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic factors in the experiences of children and youth in conflict zones. Contributions from scholars at all career stages and from all parts of the globe are welcome.