Access: Fundamental Issues, Journal Special Issue
Growing out of two panels on access in higher education at the 2021 Modern Language Association's annual convention, this special journal issue will focus on the fundamental issues of access that plague American higher education. We will send the special issue proposal to several journals that take a radical approach to pedagogy in higher education.
We envision an issue with the title "Access: Fundamental Issues." The issue will build, of course, on the ideas put forward at the initial MLA panels on access in education and develop those ideas into researched, passionate pieces that not only diagnose the immediate problems of access but examine their deep histories and systemic realities. We do not want to rely on a diagnosis of our issues of access being simply chronic underfunding of higher education, nor are we seeking contributions that our institutions will use to smugly pat themselves on the back and pronounce “mission accomplished.” Instead, we want to dig deeply into the reasons for that underfunding--white supremacy, cis- and hetero-patriarchy, capitalism, and capitalism's latest nasty iteration of neoliberalism.
Most importantly for this issue, we want you to address how these huge, systemic problems affect on-the-ground teaching and learning in your classrooms. We do not expect, nor necessarily desire, you to provide solutions to any problems. We think diagnosing and addressing them is sufficient for this issue. However, you can write about strategies for alleviating these problems at least momentarily, particularly if there is evidence of success.
Please submit 300-500 word abstracts plus 100-word bios to Joseph Donica and Leah Richards by May 31, 2021. Professors Donica and Richards will acknowledge receipt of your abstract and contact you in June. If selected for inclusion in the issue, your full article will be due September 1, 2021. If you have any questions or want to check if your piece is a good fit for the issue, do reach out.