Digital Rhetoric and Borders: Human Mobility Between Mexico and the United States

Editors: Dr. Rubria Rocha de Luna, Dr. Paloma Vargas Montes and Dr. Maricruz Castro Ricalde

With the support of the Tecnólogico de Monterrey Research Dean's Office, we are pleased to invite proposals for chapters of previously unpublished and original work to be included in Digital Rhetoric and Borders: Human Mobility Between Mexico and the United States, to be published by a high impact Scopus publisher in 2024.

The book will include chapters from leading scholars who study the Mexico-U.S. border and human mobility through the lens of digital rhetoric and who work from backgrounds including but not limited to the areas of: cultural studies, digital humanities, communication, rhetoric, history, literature, linguistics, cinema, sociology.

The book will include three main sections. The first section will focus on History of Narratives or the Narratives of History and will be related to the digital rhetoric of the historical record from diverse sources and objects of study, such as: cultural heritage, native and indigenous groups, cultural imaginary, race, racism, and colonial past. 

The second and third sections are devoted to the digital rhetoric of textual and visual narratives and the many complexities that surround the border region, such as: migration, (migrant community of deportees, returnees, refugees, dreamers, binationals, unnacompained minors, women and LGBTT+, migrant caravans), spaces and territory, Chicano and Transborder art and media, identity, transcultural identities, and folklore, as well as human rights, human trafficking, family separation, enforced disappearances, smuggling, discrimination, criminalization and dehumanization, among many others.

Contributions devoted to aspects of digital rhetoric in relation to borders and human mobility are invited. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• History of the Narratives / Narratives of History

• Memory/Collective memory through Digital Remembrance and commemoration, digital archives, repositories, document digitization.

• Visualizations (timelines, exhibitions, image display and data curation and use of geolocation devices such as maps and cartographies).

• Historical, Anthropological, Ethnohistorical, Visual, Literary, Linguistic, among other approaches.

• Discourse Analysis

• Web scraping and text mining of digital platforms.

• Digital diaspora, social media posts or comments, blogs, digital newspapers, fake news, use of Hashtags, digital storytelling.

• Approaches that focus on, but that are not limited to topics in areas such as cultural studies, communication, politics of identity, linguistics, and literature.  

• Audiovisual and Spatial Representations

• Web platforms / social media interface design and user experience.

• Visual artifacts such as graphs, tables, figures, maps, images, memes, photography, cartoons, videogames, art, cinema, and social media videos.

• Approaches on visual rhetoric, visual arguments, iconology, visual ideographs, circulation studies, etc.

Important Dates:

Deadline for Abstract Submission: March 31st, 2023 (Extended to Wednesday April 5th, 2023)

Acceptance Announcement: April 23rd, 2023

Final Manuscript Submission: August 15th, 2023

Submission Procedure

1) Proposals with a deep theoretical analysis focused on novel digital rhetorical devices and its use for the representation of borders and human mobility from an interdisciplinary perspective are especially welcomed.

2) You are invited to submit a word document with the title of the proposal and an abstract of 250 - 300 words. In addition, please submit a 200-word author or authors bio which should include: author’s or authors’ professional title(s), affiliation(s), and contact(s). 

3) The abstract should present a strong proposal that describes goal/s, the subject of the study, and both a clear methodological and theoretical approach based on specific arguments to support the proposal. Include specific details and primary sources that explain how the proposal challenges or updates existing research.

4) Submit abstracts to: rubria.rocha@tec.mx or through the Abstract Submission Form by Wednesday April 5th, 2023. Contributors will be notified of acceptance by April 23, 2023. 

5) The deadline for submission of completed chapters of up to 6000 words is August 15, 2023. 

The book is expected to be published in 2024. 

Please feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Contact Info:

Dr. Rubria Rocha de Luna 

E-mail: rubria.rocha@tec.mx