Call for Papers - Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol. 47, No. 3, Autumn 2024

The Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics is now accepting submissions for its forthcoming regular issue, Vol. 47, No. 3, Autumn 2024.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Comparative_Literature_and_Aest...

The Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics (ISSN: 0252-8169) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, India, since 1977. The Institute was founded by Prof. Ananta Charan Sukla (1942-2020) on 22 August 1977, coinciding with the birth centenary of renowned philosopher, aesthetician, and historian of Indian art Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) to promote interdisciplinary studies and research in comparative literature, literary theory and criticism, aesthetics, philosophy, art history, criticism of the arts, and history of ideas. (Vishvanatha Kaviraja, most widely known for his masterpiece in aesthetics, Sahityadarpana, or the “Mirror of Composition,” was a prolific 14th-century Indian poet, scholar, aesthetician, and rhetorician.)

The Journal is committed to comparative and cross-cultural issues in literary understanding and interpretation, aesthetic theories, and conceptual analysis of art. It publishes current research papers, review essays, and special issues of critical interest and contemporary relevance.

JCLA is indexed and abstracted in the MLA International Bibliography, Master List of Periodicals (USA), Ulrich’s Directory of Periodicals, ERIH PLUS, The Philosopher’s Index (Philosopher’s Information Center), EBSCO, ProQuest (Arts Premium Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Collection, Arts & Humanities Database, Literature Online – Full Text Journals, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Central Essentials), Abstracts of English Studies, WorldCat Directory, ACLA, India Database, Gale (Cengage Learning), International Directory of Philosophy (PDC), Bibliography History of Art (BHA), ArtBibliographies Modern (ABM), Literature Online (LION), Academic Resource Index, Book Review Index Plus, OCLC, Periodicals Index Online (PIO), Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, CNKI, PhilPapers, Google Scholar, Expanded Academic ASAP, Indian Documentation Service, Publication Forum (JuFo), Summon, J-Gate, MIAR (Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas), United States Library of Congress, New York Public Library, BL on Demand and the British Library. The journal is also indexed in numerous university (central) libraries, state, and public libraries, and scholarly organizations/ learned societies databases.

The Journal has published the finest of essays by authors of global renown like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, John Hospers, John Fisher, Murray Krieger, Martin Bocco, Remo Ceserani, J.B. Vickery, Menachem Brinker, Milton Snoeyenbos, Mary Wiseman, Ronald Roblin, T.R. Martland, S.C. Sengupta, K.R.S. Iyengar, Charles Altieri, Martin Jay, Jonathan Culler, Richard Shusterman, Robert Kraut, Terry Diffey, T.R. Quigley, R.B. Palmer, Keith Keating, and many others. Celebrated scholars of the time like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, Mircea Eliade, Monroe Beardsley, John Hospers, John Fisher, Meyer Abrams, John Boulton, and many renowned foreign and Indian scholars were Members of the Editorial Board of the journal.

Manuscripts in MS Word (5,000–8,000 words) following the MLA style should be sent to editor@jcla.in by 31 May 2024.

Founding Editor: Ananta Charan Sukla (1942-2020), Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute, India

Email: jclaindia@gmail.com

Website: jcla.in

Call For Articles: Special issue #CFP: #Women’s #Autobiographical #Filmmaking -Alphaville: Journal of #Film and #Screen #Media,

 Call for Papers

Women’s Autobiographical Filmmaking 

Special issue of Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, Summer 2026

Guest editors: Dr Felicia Chan (University of Manchester) and Dr Monika Kukolova (University of Salford)

Autobiographical filmmaking refers to films created by filmmakers that tell stories about their lives, experiences and memories. These may be truthful or partially fictionalised, remembered clearly or misremembered, or a combination of these, usually in ways that also explore how film as a medium itself can do this — a form of practice-as-research, if you like. We are interested in exploring with potential contributors whether there might be a gendered nature to this mode of filmmaking / life-remembering / self-narrating? Do filmmakers who identify as women tell different stories about themselves and their lives from those who identify as men, or do they do so in a different way? How do women filmmakers navigate their simultaneous objecthood and subjecthood in the eye of the camera (Everett, 2007)? Much of the canon in film studies is constituted by works of male auteurs, all in one form or another said to be exploring their lives, their pasts and their selves on screen: think of figures like Federico Fellini, Woody Allen, François Truffaut, Shane Meadows, the list goes on. This structural domination is being continually challenged (Gledhill and Knight, 2015) and moves to rehistoricise women’s filmmaking have seen increased attention on figures from Agnès Varda through to Greta Gerwig though much more remains to be done on women filmmakers in the global majority. 

There has been a longer history of scholarship on women’s literary life-writing (Smith and Watson, 1998; Neuman, 2016; Brodzki and Schenck, 2019) but less so on women’s life-writing on/through film as a mode of self-narration. How have women filmmakers had to navigate the industrial structures of filmmaking with all its gatekeeping mechanisms, including access to capital? To what extent are these gatekeeping mechanisms disproportionately discriminatory towards women?  

We are inviting proposals to explore any area of the subject, although we are especially keen to receive proposals from scholars studying the ways women in the global majority use cinema to write themselves and their memories into post/colonial histories. We would also like to invite proposals on alternative publication formats such as the video essay, and shorter provocations, interviews or reports.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Filmmaker case studies
• Close readings of individual films
• Industry analysis
• Autobiographical film as method
• Challenges to theoretical orthodoxies, e.g. auteur theory, canon-making, etc.
• Decolonial approaches to gender studies and women’s filmmaking 

Full-length articles: 5,500-7,000 words, including notes but excluding references

Video essay: Approx. 3-15 mins, plus accompanying text 500-1000 words

Short reports, provocations, reviews, interviews, reflections: 1,500-2,500 words

Full-length articles and video essays will be subject to full peer review. Guidelines here: https://www.alphavillejournal.com/Guidelines.html

Publication Timeline

15 May 2024, abstract due

31 May 2024, notification of editors’ decision

15 January 2025, full video essay / manuscript due 

Publication: Summer 2026

If you are interested in contributing to this issue, please send a 300-word abstract along with a brief biography, in the same file, to Dr Monika Kukolova (M.Kukolova@salford.ac.uk)

Feel free to contact us with any questions.

 Alphaville is a diamond open-access journal, and it requests no fee from authors or readers. Visit us at https://www.alphavillejournal.com

 

Contact Information

Dr Felicia Chan, University of Manchester, UK: Felicia.Chan@manchester.ac.uk

Dr Monika Kukolova, University of Salford, UK: M.Kukolova@salford.ac.uk

Contact Email

Felicia.Chan@manchester.ac.uk

URL

https://www.alphavillejournal.com

CFP: First Conference on Global Indigenous Studies (CGIS 2024)

 The First Conference on Global Indigenous Studies is now accepting proposal submissions until June 15th, 2024! Visit the Call for Proposals page on our website to learn more. 

Conference description: Throughout the world, ethnic minorities and Indigenous people have strived to protect their rich heritages and linguistic characteristics against colonial powers, expanding nation-states, as well as the homogenizing forces of globalization. It is increasingly being recognized, exemplified by UNITED NATIONS' “Indigenous Languages Decade” (2022-2032) (https://en.unesco.org/idil2022-2032), that Indigenous languages and the epistemologies embedded in them are fundamental for the perseverance of biological and cultural diversities. The protection and promotion of linguistic diversity help to improve the human potential, agency, and local governance of native speakers of endangered languages, which is especially critical in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. 

The First Conference on Global Indigenous Studies (CGIS 2024) is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary event that will bring together national and international scholars, educators, practitioners, students, policy makers, activists, academic institutions, Indigenous organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations. The participants in this conference will be involved in a local and global dialogue and exchange of ideas, research, and experiences on the themes of the event.

Contact Email :  hlsindig@iu.edu

URL : https://indigenous.indiana.edu/conference/

Attachments: CGIS 2024 Call for Proposals PDF

CFP: 4 PAN NIT Humanities and Social Sciences Research Conclave (HSSRC) - May-2024 on Humanities at the Crossroads: The Convergence of Language, Literature and Technology- NIT Warangal

Concept Note

The PAN-NIT Research Conclave on "Humanities at the Crossroads: The Convergence of Technology, Language, and Literature" seeks to explore the dynamic interplay between traditional humanities disciplines and emerging technological advancements. This conclave aims to provide a platform for intellectual exchange, interdisciplinary dialogue, and collaborative exploration among scholars, researchers, and students from 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) across India.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the boundaries between technology, language, and literature are becoming increasingly blurred. The infusion of technology into humanities disciplines has opened up new avenues for analysis, interpretation, and expression, revolutionizing traditional approaches to scholarship and creative endeavors. This conclave aims to critically examine the challenges and opportunities presented by this convergence, exploring its implications for pedagogy, research, and societal engagement.

The PAN-NIT Research Conclave on "Humanities at Crossroads: The Convergence of Technology, Language, and Literature" promises to be a stimulating and enriching forum for exploring the transformative potential of technology within the humanities domain. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, promoting ethical reflection, and embracing innovative pedagogical practices, this conclave aims to empower scholars, researchers, and students to navigate the complex intersection of technology, language, and literature in the digital age.

The Research Conclave includes Directors’ Dialogue, Heads’ forum discussion, webinars, panel discussions and an International Conference 

Objectives of the Research Conclave

The conclave extends a warm invitation to faculty members, Ph.D./M. Phil scholars, postgraduate students, other academicians, and independent scholars engaged in diverse humanities, social sciences, and related fields to exchange their insights. The event aims to achieve the following objectives:

Facilitate Interdisciplinary Dialogue: 

Establish a platform for intellectual discourse that bridges the gap between humanities and technology.

Promote collaborative efforts among individuals from varied disciplines and institutions.

Foster a community dedicated to advancing knowledge at the confluence of technology, language, and

literature.

Explore Emerging Trends:  Delve into the evolving trends that are shaping the future landscape of humanities scholarship and creative expression.

Unravel the transformative influences propelling innovation in the realm of intellectual pursuits.

Promote Innovative Pedagogy:  Showcase inventive pedagogical methodologies and educational technologies.

Highlight strategies that empower learners to engage critically with the world around them.

Provide educators with tools to navigate the complexities of the 21st-century educational landscape.

Ignite Intellectual Curiosity: Cultivate an environment conducive to fostering intellectual curiosity.

Pave the way for new avenues of inquiry and exploration.

Themes and sub-themes

The conference covers the following areas, but are not limited to:

Language Education

English Literature

Phonetics and Linguistics

Cultural and Gender Studies

Digital Humanities, Medical Humanities, Posthuman Studies, Sustainability Studies, Disability Studies, Children’s Literature, Diasporic Literature, Partition Literature, Commonwealth Literature, Memory and Trauma Studies, Pandemic Literature, Classical Literature, Shakespearean Literature, Victorian Literature ELT in the era of new technologies, Innovative educational methods, approaches, and techniques, English Language Education in India, Translanguaging, Critical Pedagogy, Multi-lingualism, 21st Century Pedagogy Phonetics, Socio-Linguistics, Stylistics, Corpus Linguistics, Language Documentation and Revitalisation, PsychoLinguistics, NLP, Computational Linguistics, Linguistics Typology, Forensic Linguistics Queer Studies, Feminist Theory, Film Studies, Culture and Aesthetics, Indigenous Studies, Popular Culture, Postpartum Literature, Masculinity Studies, Graphic Narratives Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, Anthropology and other interdisciplinary areas.

Please submit your abstract within 250-300 words and with 4-5 keywords in this google form link:

https://forms.gle/Aq4r6QTrAEWjfuCQ6

All content must be original, and authors are responsible for obtaining necessary consent and permission to

use any third-party material.

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 10th April, 2024

Acceptance Status Update: Authors will be notified within 7 days of abstract submission

Registration Date: 20-30th April, 2024

For any related queries, contact us:

Email: pannit24.nitw@gmail.com

J Ravi Prakash

Contact:+918978145797

Mail id: jr720121@student.nitw.ac.in

Gopika Jayachandran

Contact : 8129694083

Mail id: gj22hsr1r02@student.nitw.ac.in

CFP: #Disability and Detective Fiction (theme issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection) -Clues Journal

 The guest editors welcome proposals for a theme issue of Clues focusing on the representation of disability, broadly defined, in crime and mystery fiction, television shows, films, and other media. We seek a wide range of critical and cultural perspectives on how bodymind anomalousness features in stories about wrongdoing, from the maimed and scarred villains of Conan Doyle to the neurodivergent hero-sleuths of contemporary popular culture. In what ways have impairment, disfigurement, and disease been used to raise the stakes of fear and upheaval in crime stories? How do such narratives perpetuate or challenge ableist notions of order and resolution? Does corporeal vulnerability stoke our pity, sympathy, or admiration—whether for criminals, victims, or detectives whose genius seems to triumph over adversity? Conversely, do the contours of disability facilitate alternative modes of sleuthing and lead to unexpected forms of justice? What alternate forms of knowledge do these characters and texts present and endorse? Since the genre of crime by definition entails what and how we know, how have authors—over time and around the world—engaged disability to probe the meaning of truth? 

Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

• Disability as the mark of criminality  

• Disability as a crime—or as damage—that must be redeemed

• Disability as metaphor for social decay

• Supercrip crime solvers and criminals

• Analytical prowess as compensation for physical or emotional loss

• Neurodivergence and the lonely sleuth

• Intersectional plots pairing disability with gender, race, class, and sexuality

• Disability as affective vector: upping the emotional ante

• Specific impairments as modes of knowing: detection and “cripistemology”   

Submissions should include a proposal of 250–300 words and a brief bio. Proposals due: March 15, 2024. Submit proposals to: Prof. Susannah B. Mintz, Dept. of English, Skidmore College, email: smintz@skidmore.edu, and Prof. Mark Osteen, Dept. of English, Loyola University Maryland, email: MOsteen@loyola.edu. Full manuscripts of 5,000 to 6,500 words based on an accepted proposal will be due in September 2024.

About Clues: Published biannually by McFarland & Co., the peer-reviewed Clues: A Journal of Detection features academic articles on all aspects of mystery and detective material in print, television, and film without limit to period or country covered. It also reviews nonfiction mystery works (biographies, reference works, and the like) and materials applicable to classroom use (such as films). Executive Editor: Caroline Reitz, John Jay College/The CUNY Graduate Center; Managing Editor: Elizabeth Foxwell, McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers

Contact Information

Elizabeth Foxwell

Managing Editor, Clues: A Journal of Detection

Editor, McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers

PO Box 611

Jefferson, NC  28640

Contact Email

journalclues@gmail.com

URL

https://sites.google.com/site/cluesjournal

Call for Abstracts: #Education and Role-Playing Games: #Theory, #Pedagogy, and #Practice

Analog role-playing games (tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, larps [live action role-play], etc) provide opportunities for formative and educative experiences for players. The game’s elements of role-play demand a level of imagination, participatory commitments, self-reflection, creative problem solving, and collaboration from players that most leisure activities do not. This proposed volume will focus on analog role-playing games and their educative capabilities. We are interested in how people learn and are formed by these games, both in and outside of formal educational environments. The volume seeks to examine how these games do (or do not) facilitate educative growth both through theorizing as well as concrete analysis of practice. Both theoretician-oriented and practitioner-generated pieces are welcome, but all pieces should seek to examine broader themes and questions around education, knowledge, and growth through the lens of analog RPGs. 

The editor gladly invites proposals for chapter submissions on, but not limited to, the following topics: 

Theories of education, knowledge, and pedagogy in analog role-playing games:

• RPGs and theories of learning, construction of knowledge
• RPGs and experiential/active learning 
• RPGs and vicarious experience 
• Bleed and education
• RPGs and civic / democratic education
• The role of AI in RPG play

Analog role-playing games and education broadly through:

• Education around conceptions of race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, etc
• Social participation, group membership, social mores
• Conflict resolution and violence in games
• Identity formation and self-discovery
• Transgressive play and education
• Consent practices and boundary setting
• RPGs and depictions of colonialism and exotification

Challenges/Benefits of utilizing RPGs in formal educational settings in regards to:

• RPGs and critical thinking, literacy, social emotional learning, etc
• RPGs and neurodivergent students
• RPGs as distinct from simulations or case studies
• RPGs and math education
• “The dice tell a story” - RPGs and data visualization 
• Ethics of usings RPGs in the classroom, especially when dealing with sensitive or controversial subject matter 
• Challenges around time management, assessment, and participation
• Considerations/Benefits when using RPGs with specific populations (i.e. children, seniors, ESL, etc)
• Pre and post game practices & reflection
• RPG practices of consent as practiced in a classroom
• Teacher as GM / GM as Teacher

 

Interested authors should send chapter abstracts of 250-500 words (excluding sources cited), a paragraph author biography, and a CV or resume to educationrpgpedagogy@gmail.com.

The call for chapters ends July 1st, 2024. Authors will be notified of accepted proposals on July 15th, 2024. Authors will submit their accepted chapters of a minimum of 4500 words in length by October 1st, 2024.

All contributors should engage with the existing academic literature on role-playing games. While the editors will not prescribe particular sources or methodologies, proposals should reflect acquaintance with current scholarship on role-playing games.

The project will be submitted for consideration as part of the Education and Popular Culture series. The series is unique as it equally values practitioner-generated pieces on using mass/popular culture as it does theoretician-oriented pieces on studying mass/popular culture, as well as works that exist in the intersections between these worlds. Works in this series take up issues surrounding popular culture in education broadly through pedagogical, historical, sociological, and critical lenses.

Contact Information

Dr. Susan Haarman

Loyola University-Chicago

Contact Email

educationrpgpedagogy@gmail.com

Call for Articles: "Christian Missions and the environment" - Religions is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Religions deals with the relationship between Christian missions and the natural environment. Lynn White argued that Western Christian dominion theology has proved historically detrimental to the environment. [White 1967]. The Lynn White thesis has been extensively debated for the relation between Christianity and the natural environment. The purpose of this volume is to specify and focus the discussion by investigating the understanding and practice of Christian mission vis-à-vis the natural environment.

From the 18th century, the activities of Christian missionaries were entangled with European imperialism, and engaged with and reflected upon colonial environments. Missionaries left an ambivalent heritage. Whereas they participated in the colonial enterprise and embraced a theology that regarded natural environments as subservient to human needs, some of them also recognised the need for nature conservation. It is precisely in these colonial settings that some scholars have situated the origins of modern environmentalism [Grove 1990]. Studying missionaries’ engagement with the natural environment thus illuminates the historical roots of Western environmentalism more broadly. How does the missionary relationship with the natural environment help us understand modern Western environmental attitudes?

More recently, some scholars have identified a ‘greening of mission’ [Effa 2008; Robert 2011; Kapya-Kaoma 2015], illustrated by Emilio Castro’s reference to the natural environment as the ‘third missionary frontier’ [Castro 2000]. Others remain sceptical and believe Western Christianity at large is not fundamentally changing its lukewarm or even hostile position towards environmentalism [Konisky 2018; Zaleha and Szasz 2015].

Our understanding of the role of missionary and diaconal organisations in environmentalism is fragmentary. There is very little scholarly literature on the engagement of historical missionary societies or modern Christian NGOs with the environment. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of the necessity of global Christian missionary and diaconal organisations and communities to participate in the fight against climate change [Kidwell 2020]. There is also a need to connect theological and ecological views from the global church with Western perspectives. A better understanding of eco-theology in relation to mission is needed.

We invite contributions on the following themes:

The historical role of Christian mission in its engagement with the environment in the ‘colonies’;

The role of missionary societies in postcolonial environmental settings;

Policies of current Christian NGOs vis-à-vis climate change and loss of biodiversity;

Christian missionary eco-theology;

Contemporary theology of missions and environmental sustainability;

Churches, environmental change and sustainability in contexts;

Churches, mission stations, Christian architecture and place-making, and the natural environment.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarising their intended contribution. The abstract must contain the main arguments addressing one or more of the themes, the purpose or goal of the topic, how the author intends to address the issues. Please send it by 15 April 2024 to the Guest Editors (David Onnekink david.onnekink@tuu.nl, Richard Darr rsdarr@earthlink.net and Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo bwkgolo@ug.edu.gh), or the Assistant Editor Ms. Violet Li (violet.li@mdpi.com) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Rich Darr

Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo

David Onnekink

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024

Contact Email

David.Onnekink@tuu.nl

URL

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/YTT3ZI3U6X