CFP: Special Issue, Imaginations
Guest edited by The Humanities Editors Collective, York University
The current public health emergency intersects with crises of xenophobia, racism, settler colonialism, ecological degradation, and nationalism, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. The social and cultural concerns brought to light with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic offer a unique window of opportunity; one that forces us to confront power relations that have shaped our political, social, cultural and economic life in contemporary society.
As we enter a new era of digital episteme and scholarship, visual culture has become the gateway for the production and dissemination of knowledge. Contemporary approaches to the Humanities have pushed the limits of interdisciplinarity by embracing empirical methods such as Digital/Computational Humanities, Corpus Linguistics, and Computational Social Science. By attempting to bring the old and new theoretical approaches in the Humanities in conversation with each other, and through its focus on visual culture, this special issue of Imaginations seeks to highlight the various ways in which decolonizing knowledge production through contemporary interdisciplinary Humanities has become crucial for the struggle over the future practices of academic institutions.
Privileging marginal realities, this issue sets out to challenge prevailing structures of colonial hegemony in this precarious period of global, economic, political and ecological crises. The particular focus of this issue are visual and/or digital media practices that reflect, negotiate, or confront the oppressive forces of neo-colonial regimes embodied in the experience of marginalization through racialisation in its various intersections. Contributors are invited to reflect on the possibilities of decolonial methodologies and praxes that centre resistance, survival, hope and healing for marginalized communities.
The issue will consist of contributions in the form of peer-reviewed original essays from scholars, short essays or articles, multimedia and experimental submissions, and reviews (including book reviews and reports). We encourage submissions on the following topics:
- social, political, philosophical or aesthetic approaches to visual cultures
- hybrid and experimental web art
- activism, art and environment
- community building and mutual aid during the covid-19 pandemic
- decolonizing knowledge and challenging hegemonic narratives in an online era
- political ecologies of resistance with growing climate concerns
- dialectics of liberation; social justice and digital media activism
- critique of power structures and revolution discourse
- critical race and ethnic theory, and gendered approaches to recent public health crisis
Submissions are also welcome from the following fields and approaches with a focus on visual culture and praxis (including but not limited to):
● critical race and ethnicity studies
● critical settler colonial studies
● decolonial approaches to various media
● digital humanities
● disability studies
● environmental humanities
● health humanities
● indigenous studies
● liberation studies
● post secular studies
● post(structuralism)
● psychoanalytic theory
● religious studies
● social justice and activism
● visual culture
Note on The Decolonized Library Project:
The Decolonized Library Project is a grassroots collective that brings together academic scholars, visionaries, and community members, and a counter-platform that seeks to provide a safe space for community discourse, and the production and dissemination of knowledge by the disenfranchised. Through its focus on activism, religion and faith studies using intersectional, postcolonial, feminist, black and indigenous critical theory, the DLP performs the function of a community resource that works to both highlight work from marginalized scholars and decolonize knowledge production.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Original research essays should be between 5000-7000 words. Book Reviews (750-1000 words), short essays (3000-4000 words), and experimental art works will also be considered. Citations should adhere to the MLA Style Guide.
All submissions must be sent to editorsathuma@gmail.com. Please include a separate 250-word Author Biography and contact information. Please see the full list of author submission guidelines available on the Imaginations Journal website. The Imaginations style sheet is accessible here.
SUBMISSION TIMELINE
The special issue is tentatively planned for publication in Winter 2022.
September 30th, 2021 - Submission of full papers
April 30th 2022 – Expected date of publication of articles
We will notify contributors on the status of their submissions throughout the review process.
CONTACT US
Please direct questions and inquiries to issue editors at editorsathuma@gmail.com.