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Thursday, April 20, 2023

Call for Book Chapters: “Emerging from the Rubble: Asian/ American Writings on Disasters”



Vernon Press invites book chapters for an edited volume currently under consideration on the subject of “Emerging from the Rubble: Asian/ American Writings on Disasters.”

Paul Crutzen’s warning against modern human’s impacts on the earth through his discourse on “the Anthropocene,” has brought our attention to the catastrophic effects of damages caused by human activities and raised questions about human-centered perspectives on civilization and world systems. Scholars in the humanities have been problematizing the epoch of the Anthropocene, using approaches in relevant fields such as ecocriticism, animal studies, new materialism, and posthumanism, to challenge human-centered vantage points. While we humans certainly bear tremendous responsibility for the impacts on the ecosystem due to the damaging effects of our industrial, scientific, biotechnological, and political activities and the repercussions of neo/colonial warfare, we are also placed in an extremely vulnerable and precarious state exposed to unprecedented environmental threats, whose effects are felt disproportionately across the globe. The hierarchical divide imposed and enforced by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and dis/ability often are expressed through the unequal distribution of physical and psychical violence. Meanwhile, lesser species on the food chain continue to be left unacknowledged.

Understanding the current urgency to establish a dialogue towards planetary consciousness, this edited volume invites scholarly essays on works of Asian American literature and on Asian American representation that portray and evaluate various natural and man-made disasters and their aftermaths. Global catastrophes leave a flotsam and jetsam of debris that reveals not only evidence of towns and cities gone asunder, but from the aftermath surge disease, pollution, socio-political discord, and further dissonance and destruction. Being aware of their involvement in the global system of imperialism, Asian American authors have been compelled to engage with the crises that occurred in their ancestral origins. Their particular racial position and socio-historical backgrounds in U.S. society also enables them to witness disastrous events differently from the majority. Thus, Asian American narratives reflect the way in which imperial influences function as corrosive agents that mediate, perpetuate, and exploit systems and peoples while disclaiming accountability and maintaining vested transnational interests and global power. How do these subsequent entanglements yield new damages and renewed disparities, and meanwhile how have the tethers that have rigorously tied national subject to nation-state been countlessly redefined, reasserted, and refuted? In an age when the malaise of distrust and deception is a constant threat to our efforts to reach consensus, this anthology is an attempt to open a dialogue on how Asian American narratives through their portrayal of disaster may lead to uncovering truths about the multifarious impacts of disaster and reveal new understandings on ways in which attaining recompense may be possible. We welcome transnational perspectives across the world to acknowledge our shared vulnerability and need for cooperation/collaboration beyond the boundaries of nation-states.



We welcome chapters related to natural and man-made disasters. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The aftereffects of earthquake and tsunami disasters
  • The impacts of climate change including hurricane and typhoon disasters
  • 9/11 and its aftermath
  • Wars (the Vietnam War, WWII, Iraq Wars, etc.)
  • The effects of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons 
  • Food contamination
  • Diseases caused by industrial pollution
  • Biopiracy
  • Gene manipulation
  • The epidemic and pandemic
  • Starvation and poverty

If you are interested in contributing to this edited volume, please submit your proposal (500-word max.), and biography (300-word max.) to the editors Dr.Yasuko Kase and Eliko Kosaka (aawondisasters@gmail.com) by August 15th, 2023.

Proposal acceptance will be notified by the end of August.

Full chapter submissions are to be delivered by March 15, 2024.

Contact Info: 

Volume editors, Dr.Yasuko Kase and Eliko Kosaka

Contact Email: 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Call for Book Chapters - Purpose Washing and Woke Capitalism: The Stories Organizations Tell Us

 


Call for Book Chapters

Working title - Purpose Washing and Woke Capitalism: The Stories Organizations Tell Us


Proposed Book Publisher: Springer


Our Editorial team seeks contributors to join us for this edited book with the working title “Purpose Washing and Woke Capitalism: The Stories Organizations Tell Us” . This volume aims to bring together theoretical and practical insights into the workings and vocabulary of purpose washing in organisations. To improve their reputation and achieve a competitive advantage, many organisations have adopted the rhetoric of social justice, diversity, inclusivity, and sustainability in recent years. However, they are unable to bridge the gap between rhetoric and action. This phenomenon has been termed 'purpose washing', and it raises important questions about the role of organizations in society, the ethics of corporate communication, and the potential for social change. It also questions the neoliberal logic of ‘progressive posturing’ by these organizations.

We welcome chapters that critically examine Organizations, including an investigation into their marketing, advertising, corporate structure, recruitment policies, DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, ESG ( Environmental, Social and Governance) concerns to expand our understanding of green-washing, pink-washing, and white-washing and other areas of Woke capitalism. Through examining organizational case studies and using empirical and theoretical approaches, this volume aims to uncover the ways in which organizations use storytelling to promote their purpose-driven image and engage with contemporary social issues.

Possible audiences for this book include undergraduate and graduate students, especially cross-disciplinary scholars from the area of critical management, media and communication, public policy, political sciences, development studies, cultural studies and psychology. We are looking for papers that provide theoretical and empirical insights on the following (but not limited to) issues.

● Cross-cultural issues and purpose washing: How do cultural context and geography, or other broader social, political and economic issues, impact the push for a purpose-driven image?

● Types of organizations and purpose washing: Comparing and contrasting different kinds of organizations (size, type, structure). For example - between organizations operating in different sectors ( Energy, finance, FMCG etc. ) or organizations with different structures (Start-ups, MNCs, Governmental organizations)

● Storytelling and purpose washing: What effects do businesses' use of storytelling have on the general public's perception, stakeholder participation, and social movements? How do organisations develop and express their purpose-driven image?

● Counter-narratives and purpose washing: How can alternative storytelling approaches like participatory approaches challenge and transform purpose washing and woke capitalism, and what are the opportunities and limitations of these approaches?

● Ethical Issues in purpose washing: What are the ethical concerns associated with purpose washing and woke capitalism, and how can organizations and stakeholders address them?

We welcome contributions from academics and professionals working in a variety of fields, including but not limited to anthropology, management, marketing, sociology, communication and political science. We seek original research papers, theoretical essays and case studies that engage with the issues above and provide insights into the nuanced and dynamic interactions between organisational storytelling, woke capitalism, and purpose-washing.

Submission Guidelines: Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract (500 words) by 30th May 2023 to Shubhda Arora at shubhda.arora.30@gmail.com The abstract should clearly state the research question(s), theoretical and empirical background, methods, and expected contribution(s) to the volume.

Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be invited to submit a full chapter (8,000-10,000 words) by 30th October 2023. All submissions will be subject to a double-blind peer review process.

Timeline:

● Abstract submission deadline: 30th May 2023

● Notification of acceptance: 30th June 2023

● Full chapter submission deadline: 30th November 2023

● Review and revision period: December 2023 to June 2024

● Expected Publication: December 2024

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

CFP : Translating Knowledge: From Theory to Praxis. Central European University, Vienna June 2-3, 2023

Translating Knowledge:  From Theory to Praxis

June 2-3, 2023

Sociology and Social Anthropology Graduate Conference

Central European University, Vienna

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2023

Keynote speakers:

John Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, The Open University, UK

Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden 

Translating academic knowledge into social praxis has always been a central question for critical theory. This is particularly true in an age of polycrisis. Neoliberal globalization has intensified the exploitation of natural resources, the financialization of social reproduction, and the precarization of labor. Climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and housing precarity yield a unique moment that urges us to consider how to bridge the gap between academic and practical knowledge. Moreover, the rise of chauvinist discourses and authoritarian political regimes around the world, often accompanied by outright attacks on knowledge production, has narrowed the potential for social scientists to communicate and impact public discourse. In this conference, we aim to explore the ways to overcome these challenges and translate our work into meaningful social action.

Translating knowledge into action has long been integral to grassroots activism in housing, migration, gender equality, and environmental justice. Academics continue to take an active part in social movements, working together with NGOS and mobilizing/ bottom-up initiatives.  We understand translation not only in the linguistic sense, but in a broader sense as interpretations, associations, and representations that mediate between different contexts. As Clarke et al. (2015) remind us, translation has a double significance “as both an act of domination (the means through which power, hierarchy, and rule are re-inscribed) and a condition of possibility in which dialogue, talking back, and building connections and solidarities [...] become possible.”  We take this double significance of translation as both a potentiality for engaged social research and a methodological tool in need of serious critical reflection.  This conference asks: What can be gained or lost in the translation of knowledge? How can translation be used for community-oriented social research? How can it be used as a critical methodological tool? We invite papers that draw on empirical analyses as well as theoretical ones which focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Theoretical frameworks and conceptual models that investigate the role of translation in emancipatory knowledge production, such as critical pedagogy, collaborative research, or participatory action research.
  • Alternative methods, research designs and strategies for knowledge translation in the social sciences and beyond, such as visual artwork, digital media production, or engagement with policy makers, activists, and journalists.
  • Challenges and methodological limitations of translation (i.e., power dynamics between researchers and research participants, policymakers, and activists or other social agents).
  • Constraints and difficulties in creating and translating knowledge in academia under neoliberalism.
  • Rethinking and conceptualizing the interactions between the domains of policy, activism, and academia.
  • Ethics and social responsibility of Participatory Action Research (PAR).
  • Roles and contributions of sustainable institutions and collectives within and beyond academia for translating knowledge into social action and/or for creating inclusive educational and learning environments.

We welcome submissions from scholars and practitioners from various disciplines including sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, and related fields.

Submission Guidelines:

  • Abstracts should be no more than 200 words
  • Submissions should be in English
  • Submissions should include the title of the presentation, the author's name, institutional affiliation, geographical provenience and contact information (as some travel support might be available on a need basis)
  • Submissions should be sent to SocAnthGradConf2023@ceu.edu by April 30th, 2023.

CFP: MUSLIM WOMEN’S POPULAR FICTION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE – 5-9 SEPTEMBER 2023

 MUSLIM WOMEN’S POPULAR FICTION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE – 5-9 SEPTEMBER 2023

Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction AHRC Research Network International Conference

Birmingham, UK, 5-9 September 2023

Free to attend for all speakers and attendees.

Keynote speakers

Professor Claire Chambers

Dr Rehana Ahmed

In the twenty-first century, readers, publishers, and booksellers have noted a surge in popularity of genre works written by Muslim women, particularly in the Anglosphere. From the detective novels of Ausma Zehanat Khan to G. Willow Wilson’s fantasy fiction, Ayisha Malik’s romantic fiction to graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi – Muslim women authors are embracing popular fiction forms and genres.

We invite paper proposals for a free international conference on Muslim women’s popular and genre fiction and film across all languages, forms and periods. We aim to bring together researchers to examine the global turn in popular fiction, and the concurrent ‘popular turn’ in Muslim women’s writing and film-making. Focusing on writing by women deemed ‘popular’ rather than ‘literary’, we encourage proposals that engage with under-studied popular and genre texts (including romance, chick lit, detective fiction, Young Adult, fantasy, life writing, and science fiction) from a range of critical disciplinary perspectives.

Indicative topics (not exhaustive):

  • Studies of individual authors or works of popular and genre fiction
  • Translation of popular and genre works by Muslim authors
  • Visual culture (graphic novels, comics, film, TV)
  • Digital culture (Instagram, YouTube, BookTok)
  • Decoloniality and popular fiction
  • Teaching Muslim women’s popular fiction
  • Publishing and production

A key aim of the conference is to encourage collaboration between researchers working in similar areas but across languages, disciplines and genres. The conference programme includes time for researchers to meet previously identified and new research partners during structured sessions in which network members can plan for future collaboration. We intend to publish collaborative outputs resulting from the conference in an edited book, Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction, intended for publication in Manchester University Press’ Multicultural Textualities series.

We have allocated funding to help with travel and attendance costs to make the conference as accessible as possible. The conference will be child-friendly, with play spaces available. We are investigating a hybrid option – please indicate in your proposal whether this is an option you would like to consider.

Please send abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers, including a short bio for all speakers, to a.burge@bham.ac.uk by 30 April 2023. Acceptances will be sent by the end of April. Panel proposals of three or more papers are also welcome. Please direct all queries to a.burge@bham.ac.uk.

For more information, go to: https://more.bham.ac.uk/mwpf-network/

Funding generously provided by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Contact Email: 

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Call For Articles-Edited Book: Indian Responses to 21st Century African Women’s Writing.


Call For Papers-Edited Book : Indian Responses to 21st Century African Women’s Writing.



We are pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming edited book on the topic “Indian Responses to 21st Century African Women’s Writing.” We are seeking contributions from scholars and researchers who are interested in exploring the intersection of Indian and African literature, feminist studies, and cultural studies.

The book aims to examine the diverse and complex responses of Indian readers, critics, and writers to the emerging and established voices of African women writers in the 21st century. We welcome contributions that analyze the themes, styles, and contexts of African women's writing, as well as explore the ways in which Indian readers and writers engage with, interpret, and respond to these works.

We encourage original and unpublished chapters that engage various themes related to the title “Indian Responses to 21st Century African Women’s Writing.”
Please refer the link for publication guidelines and themes -

We invite chapters that range from 3000-4000 words and follow the MLA 8 citation style. The deadline for paper submissions is May 15, 2023. Please submit your chapters to editor@limj.org

We are planning to collaborate with a reputable academic publisher and hope to publish the book in July 2023. We look forward to receiving your contributions and engaging in meaningful conversations around the topic.



Best regards,
Dr. Abhijeet Dawle (Contact Person: 9960765485)

Sunday, April 9, 2023

CFP: Postcolonial Pirandello: Grotesque Plays/Fiction, Postnational Narratives, Ethnic Discourse Conference_University of London October 2023




CALL FOR PAPERS
Society for Pirandello Studies Annual Conference

in collaboration with
Postcolonial Pirandello:
Grotesque Plays/Fiction, Postnational Narratives, Ethnic Discourse

Saturday 21 October 2023 - Sunday 22 October 2023

Venue: Birkbeck, University of London

The annual two-day conference of the Society for Pirandello Studies aims to embrace a wide variety of methods and approaches to Pirandello's Å“uvre, and to bring together theatre professionals, critics and scholars representing a range of disciplines. Both in-person and online/from-home 20-minute papers are welcome. This year's conference sheds light on Pirandello's awareness of colonialist/nationalist hegemony and its relation to more recent practices of (fiction/theatre) storytelling. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Pirandello's work critiquing war and fascism despite his formal membership to the latter;
Pirandello's theatrical and literary representation of national and ethnic identity/-ties;
Pirandello's uncovering of colonial discourse & hegemony at play in the north/south and mainland/island (Sicily) cultural narratives;
Pirandello's metafiction: narratology, theory and practice;
Pirandello's influence on later theories of metafiction;
Metafiction and neighbouring categories, such as Romantic mise-en-abyme, the absurd, and the grotesque;
Characters in twenty-first-century literature, cinema, and other media;
Authorship, umorismo, and gender;
Metafiction and authorship across disciplines, including sociological, psychological and anthropological perspectives.
Abstracts and biographies of c.200 words each (in English) for papers of 20 minutes' duration to be presented either in person or remotely should be sent to Matt Mild at m.mild@alumni.maastrichtuniversity.nl and pirandello-studies@lcir.co.uk. Download Paper proposal form.


The deadline for abstracts is Friday 16 June 2023.
Society members registration fee (online or in-person participation) - 20 GBP
Standard registration fee (online participation) – 45 GBP
Standard registration fee (in-person participation) – 90 GBP
For further information about The Society for Pirandello Studies, including membership and Pirandello Studies (the annual journal), please visit our website at http://www.ucd.ie/pirsoc/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SocietyForPirandelloStudies.

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

CALL FOR PAPERS :A Three-Day International YOUNG RESEARCHERS’ CONFERENCE (Hybrid Mode) On NEW RESEARCH IN ENGLISH STUDIES_EFL University Hyderabad

 CALL FOR PAPERS

The Department of English Literature
organises
A Three-Day International YOUNG RESEARCHERS’ CONFERENCE
through the Hybrid Mode
On
NEW RESEARCH IN ENGLISH STUDIES
Conference Dates: 26- 28 April, 2023
Eminent Speakers:
Prof. Bill Ashcroft, Emeritus Professor in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.
Prof. K. Narayana Chandran, Department of English, University of Hyderabad
Prof. Kathryn HummelMIT World Peace University, Pune.
Prof. Luise Von Flotow, School of Translation and Interpretation, University of Ottawa,Canada.
Prof. Ajanta Sircar, Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Vellore.
Prof. Swarnavel EswaranDepartment of English and the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University, USA.
Dr. Shilpaa AnandAssociate Professor and Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad.




Concept Note
The three-day international young researchers’ conference on New Research in English Studies from 26 to 28 April, 2023 (Hybrid Mode) intends to stimulate the cross-pollination of ideas in the spirit of NEP, 2020. 
This Conference will 
a) provide research scholars a forum to present their research ideas b)help them receive feedback on the choice of research paradigm, hypothesis, andmethodology, from experts 
c) facilitate discussion on recent trends in English Studies and 
d)help create peer-group network on new directions in English Studies. Selected papers will becompiled and published as conference proceedings.


We invite abstracts related to English Studies from research scholars enrolled in PhD programmes in universities across the world. The emphasis of the conference is on emerging paradigms and new explorations, so preference will be given to research papers on
new themes, orientations, and methods of inquiry. The broad themes and sub-themes are listed below:

1. New Humanities
a) Digital Humanities
b) Spatial Humanities
c) Medical Humanities
d) Critical Post-Humanities

2. Vulnerability Studies
a) Vulnerability as a Research Method
b) Assessing and Measuring Vulnerability
c) Vulnerability and Resistance

3. Identity: Representation, Culture and Politics
a) Theories of Representation: Intersectionality and Beyond
b) Media and Representation
c) Representation in Post-Truth Society

4. Visuality and Image Studies
a) Images, Circulation and Practices
b) Visuality and the New Media
c) Everyday Imaging, and Critical Thinking
d) The Flaneur and the City

5. Minority Discourses: New Approaches
a) New Frontiers in Dalit Literary Studies
b) Globalization and Diaspora Literary Studies
c) Alternative Literature Studies

6. Narrating and Theorising Nature-Human Connections
a) Ecocriticism and Geo-Criticism in Perspective
b) Literatures of the Anthropocene
c) Ecofeminism
d) Animal Studies
e) Blue Humanities

7. Oral and Performance Cultures
a) Theorising Orality
b) The Ritual Revisited
c) Issues in Performance Ethnography
d) Performance and Public Spaces

8. Graphic Narratives
a) Interpreting/Understanding Sequential Arts
b) Graphic Narratives: The Politics of Reception
c) Interart Poetics: Extant and Emerging Trends

9. Gender Studies
a) Disciplinarity and Gender Studies
b) Feminist Praxis
c) Gender Responsive Pedagogy:Issues in Ideology and Methodology

10. Fantasy, Myth and Folklore
a) Theorizing Fantasy and Science Fiction
b) Folkloristics and Modern Narratives
c) Retelling Myths: Critique, Ideology, Aesthetics

11. Translation/Transcreation
a) Literature as Translation /Translation as Literature
b) Translation and Gender
c) The Politics of Translation

12. Literatures of the Global South
a) South Asian Literature
b) Indian Art and Aesthetics
c) Postcolonial Diaspora Art
d) Refugee Literature

13. Narrative and the Self
a) Memory, Trauma and Literature
b) Life Writing
c) Auto/biography Studies
d) Food and Culinary Memoirs

14. Children’s and Young Adult Literature
a) Childhood and its Representations
b) The Body in YAL
c) Comparative Children’s Literature Studies

Abstract details: Email your abstract, of about 250 words, with a title, your name, institutional affiliation, email Id and mobile number. 
Please Follow the Format below:
Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Details of Research Programme:
Email address:
Phone number:
Title of the paper:
Abstract with five keywords:

Paper presenters: Each presenter shall get 15 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion.
Participation details: Accommodation will be provided to out-station participants in the EFL University Hostel /Guest House (for paper presenters only). Travel expenses will be reimbursed to the extent of return sleeper-class railway fare for out-station participants. Food
will be arranged for all the presenters on Conference days. A paper presentation certificate will be issued to all the presenters.








Important Dates:
Submission of Abstract: April 6, 2023
Acceptance of Abstract: April 10, 2023
Registration: April 13, 2023
Registration Fee (MA students and PhD scholars): Rs 200/
For Faculty Members from other Universities and Institutions: Rs 500/
Submission of Full Paper: April 15, 2023
Email your abstract to: yrceflu2023@gmail.com









We look forward to your participation. For further details, contact:
Dr. Eligedi Rajkumar, Conference Coordinator, Department of English Literature, School of Literary Studies, EFL-University, Hyderabad. 
Email id: rajkumar@efluniversity.ac.in