Writing as A Way of Staying Human in A Time That Isn’t

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

This edited collection will continue conversations started at the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning’s 2017 Annual Conference, Writing as a Way of Being, by providing concrete, specific strategies to readers for incorporating the human element in their teaching, writing, research, or/and everyday lives.

The human element of our work has never been more important. As conference keynote Robert Yagelski explains, ideological and social pressures have put our institutions under increasing pressure. These problems only grow when artificially separate self/world and mind/body in our teaching and everyday experiences. Following Yagelski, this collection proposes that intentional acts of writing can awaken us to our interconnectedness, and to ways in which we—as individuals and as a writing community—might address the social and environmental challenges of our present and future world.

The editor invites manuscripts addressing all aspects of the human elements of our work as teachers, scholars, and writers. Manuscripts must provide concrete, specific strategies for how readers might incorporate the human element in their teaching, writing, research, or/and everyday lives. The collection will be organized in four sections:

Writing and the self: Essays in this section will focus on the dynamics of the experience of writing, including the relationships between writing and knowing, writing and transformative learning, and writing and well-being, and writing and spiritual practice.

Writing and the body: Essays in this section will describe strategies for (re)integrating writing and embodied experience. In particular, essays will explore writing as a practice of care and compassion through consideration of the ways writing relates to mind-body dualisms; visibility and invisibility; gender and sexuality; and meditative practices such as exercise, yoga, and Tai Chi, among others.

Writing beyond the text: Essays in this section will explore multimodal writing pedagogies, including digital writing and online teaching and learning; writing and collage; and writing and the creative arts. In addition, essays will examine the role of writing in the post-pedagogical and post-human turns and in relation to growing crises of institutional and environmental sustainability.

Writing in community: Essays in this section will consider writing’s ethical and political possibilities by outlining practices and pedagogies related to kindness, ethical attunement, social justice, and political action.

Submission Procedures

Authors are invited to submit 5,000-8,000 word manuscripts on or before September 15, 2017. Authors bear full responsibility for obtaining necessary copyright permissions. All submissions must be in Times New Roman (or similar sans serif typeface), 11 or 12-point font size, and follow Modern Language Association (MLA) format.

Submissions and inquiries should be forwarded to Nate Mickelson, Assistant Professor of English, Guttman Community College, CUNY (nate.mickelson@guttman.cuny.edu).

About the Editor

Nate Mickelson is Assistant Professor of English at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, CUNY. He has organized sessions at national conferences of the MLA, CCCC, and ACLA, among others, and was program chair for the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning’s 2017 annual conference. His article, “Writing at Transitions,” advocates for holistic understanding of what students experience in the classroom. His research and teaching explore the intersections of poetry, creative literacy, and everyday life. His first book, City Poems and American Urban Crisis, is forthcoming in Bloomsbury’s Critical Poetics Series.

About Vernon Press

Selected essays (subject to double blind peer review) may appear in an edited volume with Vernon Press. Vernon Press is an independent publisher of scholarly books in the social sciences and humanities. We work closely with authors, academic associations, distributors and library information specialists to identify and develop high quality, high impact titles. More information available at: www.vernonpress.com.

Timeline

September 15, 2017:               Deadline for Submission of Manuscripts

December 15, 2017:                Feedback from Editor and Notification of Acceptance

February 1, 2018:                    Deadline for Submission of Revised Chapters