cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Webtexts (CFW)
Spatial Praxes: Theories of Space, Place, and Pedagogy, a 2012 summer special issue of Kairos
Guest Editors: Dr. Amy Kimme Hea, Ashley J. Holmes, and Jennifer Haley-Brown

(PDF version for printing can be found at http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/14.2/loggingon/spcfw.html)

Many in our field have brought spatial rhetoric to the forefront of their research. Most notably, Nedra Reynolds’ Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering Difference (2003) reminds composition and rhetoric scholars of the ways in which spatial relations are always rhetorical relations, imbricated in visual, literate, and technological cultures. Our need, as compositionists and rhetoricians, is to understand the broad impact of these spatial interrelationships on our research and teaching. Such material concerns have been examined in relationship to research methodologies (Porter & Sullivan, Kimme Hea), information space (Johnson-Eilola), place-based composition (Reynolds), virtual spatialities (Payne), spatial crises in academia (Mauk), and rhetorical history (Mountford). This range of approaches to spatial rhetorics also draws on an equally complex range of critical theorists from Foucault to Soja. To be certain, composition and rhetoric scholars are making substantial contributions to spatial projects. The less developed area of inquiry and the moment of becoming we would like to prompt is a fuller understanding of spatial praxes—and by praxes we mean the conscious, willed actions by which theory is transformed into practical activities. This special issue aims to exploit the design possibilities of webtexts to make public such spatial praxes. Across the submission categories, we will look for proposals that foreground praxes, not as “how to” but rather as meaningful areas of inquiry where theory and practice are constitutive.

We are seeking proposals for the following Kairos areas:
topoi
For the topoi category, we envision webtexts that will theorize spatial praxes and the impacts of that theoretical inquiry on research, teaching and even administration.
praxis
In the praxis section, we encourage webtexts that offer case studies of spatial pedagogies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
reviews
We also welcome proposals for reviews of places, spaces, and non-places. For this section, we would like reviews of spatial sites such as museums, memorials, libraries, campuses, communities, airports, among others. Reviewers should situate their reviews through a well-articulated spatial framework.
interviews
We also want to include interviews with scholars in our field who examine spatial rhetorics.

Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following:

* How are teaching and learning transformed by and transformative of space?
* What spatial frameworks are useful for enacting well-theorized practices in the many sites of rhetoric and composition (such as the classroom, digital learning spaces, service learning, and public manifestations of rhetoric and composition)?
* How can composition and rhetoric teachers guide students to interrogate and deploy critical spatial rhetorics?
* How can composition and rhetoric teachers integrate spatial rhetorics into their pedagogies in ways that provide both hermeneutic and heuristic strategies?
* How can our research and teaching practices adequately address local, regional, and global impacts of spatial rhetorics?
* How can we activate spatialized praxes to develop useful relationships between the spaces of research, teaching, and administration?
* What’s at stake when we encourage attention to space/place in our classrooms? What’s at stake when we don’t? For example, how does attention to space/place complicate issues of power in the classroom?
* How can we develop assessments on spatial praxes as we integrate such projects in our courses and curricula?

Proposal Guidelines
Your proposal should be emailed to spatialpraxes@gmail.com and should include the following in a file saved as .docx, .doc, .rtf, .odt, or .html:
• Author name(s) and full contact information
• Section for which the proposal should be considered (topoi, praxis, review, or interview). If you have questions about the appropriate category, please feel free to contact us.
• 500-750 word description of your proposed webtext, including an explanation of design elements you intend to use to make full use of the wide range of possibilities digital publication affords.
Deadline for 500-750 word webtext proposals: June 30, 2010
Deadline for full webtext submissions: December 2010
Deadline for final webtexts: August 2011

Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the Guest Editors if they have any questions. Please email questions and/or proposals for webtexts to the Guest Editors: Dr. Amy C. Kimme Hea, Ashley J. Holmes, and Jennifer Haley-Brown at spatialpraxes@gmail.com.

Feel free to widely circulate this CFW to other potential contributors.