Call for Papers: Research in Social Science and Disability Special Issue on Disability and Community

Research in Social Science and Disability invites proposals for articles for a special issue on Disability and Community to be published in 2012. Proposals are welcome from individuals representing all social science disciplines, including anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology as well as related fields such as area studies, communications, law, and philosophy.

The evolving and politically contested notion of community sits at the center of much of recent scholarship on disability. The special issue will bring together scholarship from multiple disciplines to explore issues related to Disability and Community, including but not limited to the interaction of systems of citizenship and rights with community participation; identification, representation, culture, and community; processes of community inclusion and exclusion; the relationship between political advocacy and disability community; the role of public policies, the law, and service delivery systems in promoting the incorporation or exclusion of people with disabilities into broader communities; cross-national studies of disability communities; the development of community among and across people with varying disabilities; the impact of recent demographic and economic changes on people with disabilities; the rise of virtual communities among people with disabilities; and the intersectionality of class, gender, race/ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation with disability community.

Paper proposals of 300-500 words should be submitted to co-editors Allison Carey accare@ship.edu or Richard Scotch, richard.scotch@utdallas.edu no later than October 1, 2010. Individuals whose proposals are selected will be notified in November 2010 and will be expected to submit their completed manuscript no later than March 31, 2011. All manuscripts submitted will be subject to peer review and possible revision prior to final acceptance for publication.

Research in Social Science and Disability, Barbara Altman and Sharon Barnartt, overall editors, focuses on linkages between disability and the social and cultural environment. It is based upon the premise that disability is not purely a medical phenomena, but rather is based on the interaction between the social and physical environment and a person’s physical or mental state. This journal considers aspects of disabilities as viewed through the lens of the social sciences, broadly defined, including: history, economics, geography, political science, psychology, anthropology, sociology, demography, human development, family studies, and philosophy. It will consider all forms of disability, including mental and physical. Research in Social Science and Disability will not consider medical, clinical or rehabilitation aspects of disability, case studies, practice descriptions, or program evaluations.

Submissions can include theoretical and critical papers, analyses based on qualitative as well as quantitative research methodologies, methodological or conceptual papers, and comprehensive reviews of the literature. All articles will be peer-reviewed by reviewers from the same disciplinary background.

Deaf Issue of M/C Journal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 1 March 2009

M/C Media & Culture (http://www.media-culture.org.au/) is calling for contributors to the 'deaf' issue of M/C Journal (http://journal.media-culture.org.au/

M/C Journal is looking for new contributors. Founded in 1998, M/C is a crossover journal between the popular and the academic, and a blind- and peer-reviewed journal.

To see what M/C Journal is all about, check out our Website, which contains all the issues released so far, at http://journal.media-culture.org.au/. To find out how and in what format to contribute your work, visit http://journal.media-culture.org.au/journal/submission.php.

Call for Papers: 'deaf'

Edited by Liz Ferrier and Donna McDonald

"Which would you rather be, deaf or blind?" is a common playground game among children as they make their early forays into imagining the lives of people different from them. How do we learn what we know about deafness? Hearing people cannot know what it is like to be deaf, just as deaf people cannot know what it is like to hear ... or can they? How can we tell fresh and authentic stories of deafness that disrupt our familiar patterns of perception? (Fisher Fishkin)

Once upon a time, the word 'deaf' was enough to describe the varying experiences of people who hear substantially less than what is considered to be normal. However today, we are confronted with a plethora of definitions, playing around with upper and lower case, sensitivities of deaf politics, and delicacies of nuance, e.g.: Deaf/deaf. Hard of hearing. Hearing impaired - all labels that attempt to define, corral, and ghettoise 'deaf' into smaller and narrower prescriptions. If you describe yourself as an Australian, you are not immediately challenged to drill down into the genetics and heritage of your disclosed identity. However, if you are deaf, you are called upon to quote statistics from your audiology tests, to describe decibels, to illustrate whether you are a signer or a speaker, to demonstrate your loyalty to the Deaf community or to the hearing world. The complexities and intrusions are immense.

Deaf characters in fiction tend to be used as generic symbols for something else rather than as fully realised expressions of their individual selves. They are rarely allowed to take their place in the story without having to perform a symbolic task such as alienation, in addition to their narrative role. "Deaf history may be characterized as a struggle for Deaf individuals to 'speak' for themselves rather than to be spoken about in medical and educational discourses." (Dirksen & Bauman). "Also, there isn't a large body of literature about the deaf by the deaf." (Henry Kisor) Couser writes

that "this should not be surprising, for a number of factors militate against deaf autobiography ... making them unlikely and rare entities." And what about deafness apropos God and spirituality? After all, St John's Gospel exhorts people to "hear the word of God". Does this mean that deaf people are deaf to God?

Some contemporary examples of representations of deafness and deaf people's lives include:

• Films of the deaf experience - The Miracle Worker (1962), Children of a Lesser God (1986), Mr Holland's Opus (1994)
• Memoirs of deafness that also conjure up memories of listening, e.g. Listening by Hannah Merker
• Fiction - Vikram Seth's An Equal Music; TC Boyle's Talk Talk, Frances Itani's Deafening, David Lodge's Deaf Sentence
• Documentaries - Sound and Fury (2000)
• TV shows (showing representations of cochlear implants) - CSI (Miami and New York), Cold Case, Bones, Law and Order, ER

How can we create stories capable of crossing "the hearing line, that invisible boundary separating deaf and hearing people" (Christopher Krentz. Writing Deafness: The Hearing Line in Nineteenth Century American Literature)?

These are not abstract issues, limited to the confines of the curious and the kind. How we explore and test such questions in the 21st century has direct, significant implications for the quality of deaf people's education, employment, income, and health.

Contact the editors at deaf@journal.media-culture.org.au, and submit articles of 3,000 words in length through our Website at http://journal.media-culture.org.au/

Article deadline: 30 April 2010

Issue release date: 30 June 2010

M/C Journal was founded (as "M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture") in 1998 as a place of public intellectualism analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture. Contributors are directed to past issues of M/C Journal for examples of style and content, and to the submissions page for comprehensive article submission guidelines. M/C Journal articles are blind peer-reviewed.

--

M/C Journal http://journal.media-culture.org.au/

CALL FOR CASES

Communication Technology for Students in Special Education or Gifted Programs
A book edited by Joan E. Aitken, Park University
Joy Pedego Fairley, University of Missouri - Kansas City
Judith K. Carlson, Rockhurst University

Proposals Submission Deadline: 3/15/2010

Full Chapters Due: 6/1/2010

Introduction

Communication technology offers new and increased opportunities for individuals with special needs. Technology facilitates such diverse possibilities for individuals as providing assistive communication for a child with cerebral palsy, increasing mobility for a child with a disability, engaging a youth with ADHD, or offering exploration on the Internet for a child who is gifted. For many people concerned about children and adults with exceptionalities, they learn about communication technology through teachers, social workers, therapists, and people who have similar needs. This book of short and chapter-length case studies is designed to pull together ideas about using technology based on the experiences and expertise of teachers, researchers, and other professionals.

Overall Objective of the Case Book
The purpose of this book is to provide ideas for enhancing education for students with exceptionalities. By hearing the anecdotal experiences of one professional, for example, other service providers may gain information and ideas for better serving individuals with exceptionalities.

Target Audience
The target audience includes teachers, service providers, parents, and future educators who work with students with special needs.

Short Case (Teaching Tip)
Teachers, practitioners, and researchers are invited to submit on or before March 15, 2010. We seek short cases (about 500 words) relevant to any educational level or learning context. What is a single idea where you have used technology to improve the communication or learning of an individual with special needs? Whether or not this is a conventional use of technology, what did you do that did or did not work in your context? We are particularly interested in input from K-12 teachers because of their innovative approaches in the classroom. These cases should have singular focus about a teaching strategy that uses communication technology. You could write about a particular computer program, for example, and how a teacher could use the program with students who are identified as eligible for special education or gifted and talented services. Short cases or teaching tips should contain the following organization:

• Title: No author identification on the manuscript or file name. Please put identification information in the email.
• Keywords.
• Learning objective or purpose of the particular communication or learning strategy.
• Resources (e.g., quality references, computer program information, product information website).

Chapter-length Case Study Proposal

The case book includes case studies that develop and complement themes relevant to using communication technology in enhancing the communication or learning of people with special needs. These chapter-length cases may be relevant to any age or educational level (preschool through high school, higher education, or life-long learning). For this category, we seek original research, where the term “case” is interpreted broadly. The case cannot be a work that has been published elsewhere. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Applications of Electronic Technology for Students With Disabilities
• Assistive and Augmentative Communication
• Communication Technology and Positive Behavior Supports
• Communication Technology for Alternative Education
• Cyberbullying and Students with Exceptionalities
• Technology Assessment and Response to Intervention (RTI)
• Distance Learning for Gifted Students
• Enhancing Teacher Resiliency through Communication Technology
• Using Technology in Assessment Processes.
• Home Schooling through Technology for Students with Special Needs
• Technology for Transition Services
• Saving Educational Costs while Improving Learning through Communication Technology
• Using Technology to Serve Special Programs in Rural or Urban Contexts

Each chapter-length case should contain the following elements:

• Introduction, Background, and Review of Literature
• Case Description
• Conclusion, Implications, and Lessons Learned
• Discussion Questions and Answers

The final word-length of each short case (teaching tip) is expected to be approximately 500 words. The final word-length of each chapter case study is expected to be in the range of 2,500–10,000 words.

Chapter-length Case Proposal Submission Procedure

Teachers, practitioners, and researchers are invited to submit on or before March 15, 2010, a 2-3 page proposal for chapter-length cases. All proposals should be include the following information:

1. Full name and title of the authors
2. Professional status (e.g., special education teacher, public school administrator, assistant professor, name of your educational institution)
3. Address and email
4. Chapter proposal summarizing the case and how the use of technology serves individuals with special needs.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by April 15, 2010 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter organizational guidelines. Chapter-length chapters are expected to be submitted by June 1, 2010. All submitted chapter-length case studies will be reviewed on a double-blind
review basis.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Important Dates
March 15, 2010: Proposal Submission Deadline (2-3 pages)
April 15, 2010: Notification of Acceptance. Short Case Deadline.
June 1, 2010: Chapter-length Case Study Submission
July 15, 2010: Review Results Returned
September 15, 2010: Revised Chapters Due from Authors
October 15, 2010: Final Submission

Please submit a single file with your proposal or manuscript, with no author identification on the manuscript or file name. Please use American Psychological Association (APA) style, 2010, 6th edition. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically to:
comtechspecial@gmail.com

For more information please visit:
http://onlineacademics.org/ComTechSpecial/

Todd Reynolds DSG Student Paper Competition - 2010

Call for Papers

Students working on topics concerned with the complex and multifaceted geographies of disability and chronic illness are encouraged to submit a paper to the 2010 AAG Disability Specialty Group Student Paper Competition. The award is named after Todd Reynolds, Ph.D. (1971 - 2008), a scholar with disabilities who pursued important research in human behavior and hazards geography. The goal of the award is to encourage student participation in the specialty group and to recognize outstanding emerging scholarship in geographic research on chronic illness and disability. The successful student will receive a cash prize of $100 and a year's membership to the DSG. Students do not have to be a current member of the DSG or AAG nor must they plan to attend the 2009 AAG conference to submit a paper. International submissions are welcome.

Eligibility criteria: Papers prepared for publication, conference presentation, and graduate or senior undergraduate courses, as well as entries written specifically for this competition, are eligible for submission. Each student may submit only one paper. The student should be the lead contributor to the paper if it is co-authored. The paper should not exceed 25 double-spaced pages (including all notes, references, and figures). 12 point font is preferred along with standard margins. A cover letter should accompany all entries and contain:

Current title of the paper and a brief abstract (no more than 100 words).

• Author and co-authors’ names
• Academic affiliation
• Faculty advisor for the paper
• Mailing address
• E-mail address
• Phone number
  

All entries must be received by February 26th, 2010. A copy of the paper
should be emailed to:

Ryan Parrey -- Rparrey@gmail.com

Josh Evans -- Josheva@gmail.com

Students considering submitting are advised to contact Maurizio by e-mail in advance. He will also gladly address any questions or concerns regarding participation in this competition.

Reviewers will be secured and their recommendations will be sent to the DSG Board for the final award decision.

Award notification

The award recipient will be notified shortly after the 2010 AAG meeting in Las Vegas. The check will be mailed to him/her shortly thereafter. Post-conference announcements will be found on the DSG website and the GEOGABLE listserv as well as other appropriate venues.

DISABILITY ISSUES CAUCUS CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

DISABILITY ISSUES CAUCUS
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

NCA 2010: Building Bridges
San Francisco, CA

November 14-17

Program Planner:
Kurt Lindemann
School of Communication
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-4560
Email: klindema@mail.sdsu.edu

DEADLINE: February 17, 2010

The Disability Issues Caucus invites research papers and program proposals examining disability and communication, especially those that explicitly address building bridges between disability and other areas of communication study. Of special interest are presentations exploring ways in which the study of disability and communication can build bridges to people, populations, and organizations outside of the communication discipline and outside of the academy. The caucus encourages innovative panel formats that emphasize interaction and discussion among participants, although more traditional paper and panel presentations are welcome as well. The caucus is particularly interested in programs that will promote participation by individuals with disabilities.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

In order to avoid unnecessary problems with submission and review, please carefully read the following guidelines:

1. Papers and panels must be submitted electronically to the All Academic Web Site linked from the 2009 NCA Conference.

2. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: Microsoft Word, PDF, or RTF.

3. Please identify student submissions.

SUBMITTING A COMPETITIVE PAPER

Submitted papers should include:

1. A title

2. A 250-500-word abstract of the paper

3. No more than 30 pages of main text, including References.

SUBMITTING A THEMATIC PAPER SESSION

Submitted paper sessions should include:

1. A title for the session

2. A list of presenters, their institutional addresses, and their email addresses

3. Titles and abstracts (350 words maximum) for each presentation or paper

4. A panel abstract (75 words maximum) for the convention program

5. A panel rationale (250 words maximum)

SUBMITTING A PANEL DISCUSSION

Submissions for a “roundtable” panel discussion should include:

1. A title for the panel

2. A list of presenters, their institutional addresses, and email addresses

3. A panel rationale (500 words maximum) adequately justifying the significance and theme of the panel as a whole

4. A panel abstract (75 words maximum) for the online convention program

Accepted participants are required to register by Wednesday, September 15, 2010 to guarantee inclusion in the convention program.

AUDIOVISUAL EQUIPMENT

Participants are encouraged to keep equipment requests to a minimum. Requests for specific equipment must be submitted online and meet the same submission deadlines for paper and panel proposals. The NCA website (www.natcom.org) has a wealth of additional information about the conference including a guide to how to submit using All Academic, and a description of alternative formats including Scholar-to-Scholar.

The Disability Issues Caucus encourages participants to consider submitting their work for presentation in a Scholar-to-Scholar spotlight session. The S2S sessions are high-energy, high-density interactive programs that encourage the use of a wide variety of media to allow for in-depth interpersonal exchange. If you are a person with a disability and need assistance in this process, please contact Kurt Lindemann, the program planner for the caucus. Presenters should be prepared to perform accessible presentations that (at minimum) provide hard and large print copies (17 point font or larger), use delivery that will accommodate ASL translation, and incorporate audio description of visual images as necessary.

The Disability Issues Caucus has two goals: 1) to promote greater participation by disabled people in the National Communication Association and the discipline at large, and 2) to encourage quality scholarship on issues concerning disability and communication.

Autreat 2010 Call for Proposals

Autreat is a retreat-style conference run by Autism Network International (www.ani.ac), for autistic people and our families, friends, supporters, and interested professionals. We are accepting presentation proposals for Autreat 2010, to be held Monday-Friday, June 28-July 2, 2010, in Bradford, Pennsylvania (approximately 80 miles from the nearest major airport at Buffalo, New York).

FOR HELP PREPARING A PROPOSAL:

If you want to submit a proposal but you have trouble reading these instructions and putting your proposal in the requested format, contact cfp-help (at) autreat.com for help. Please send only plain text
messages, with no attachments.

WHAT KINDS OF WORKSHOPS ARE WANTED AT AUTREAT?

Autreat is very different from typical autism conferences:

WHEN PREPARING A PROPOSAL FOR CONSIDERATION, BE AWARE THAT THE *PRIMARY* AUDIENCE AT AUTREAT IS AUTISTIC PEOPLE.

Parents and professionals do attend, and most who attend find the presentations to be of interest, but Autreat is basically autistic space.

Be sure your information is being presented in a manner that is both helpful to and respectful of autistic people.

We expect that you will be speaking *to* us, not speaking to non-autistic people *about* us.

We are interested in presentations, by either autistic or non-autistic people, about POSITIVE WAYS OF LIVING WITH AUTISM, about functioning as autistic people in a neurotypical world, and about the disability movement and its significance for autistic people.

We are interested in educational and informative presentations, not in sales pitches for a presenter’s products or services. If you are representing a commercial enterprise and would like a forum to sell products or services at Autreat, please contact exhibitors (at) autreat.com for information about attending Autreat as a vendor.

We are *not* interested in presentations about how to cure, prevent, or overcome autism.

We do *not* appreciate having non-autistic people come into our space to talk to each other about how difficult we are to deal with, or how heroic they are for putting up with us.

If your presentation is geared toward the interests of parents or professionals, it should focus on positive ways of appreciating and supporting autistic people, not on reinforcing negative attitudes about autism and autistic people.

AUTREAT AIMS TO BE WELCOMING AND RELEVANT TO THE BROADEST POSSIBLE CROSS-SECTION OF THE AUTISTIC POPULATION.

Autreat is attended by autistic people who speak and by autistic people who do not speak;

by autistic people who communicate fluently and by autistic people who have limited communication;

by autistic people who live independently and by autistic people who need intensive support with daily living;

by autistic people who have jobs and by autistic people who live on disability benefits;

by autistic people who are able to present as "socially acceptable" and by autistic people who require support to help them manage their behavior;

by autistic people who have been labeled "high-functioning" and by autistic people who have been labeled "low-functioning"—including some autistic people who have had *both* labels, at different times or under different circumstances.

While it is not expected that any one presentation will be of interest to each and every autistic person, we do look for presentations that will appeal to the widest possible audience.

We are *not* interested in presentations that reinforce what we consider to be artificial distinctions between members of our community who are labeled "low-" vs."high-functioning."

A NOTE ABOUT "PERSONAL EXPERIENCE" PRESENTATIONS:

Be aware that everyone at Autreat either knows what it's like to be autistic, or knows what it's like to care about someone who is autistic.

All of us have our own personal stories. Presentations about the presenters' personal stories are not going to generate much interest, unless you're able to use your story in a way that will help other people to share and understand their own experiences in a new way.

Your proposal should describe what participants can expect to get out of your presentation, not just what personal experiences you're going to talk about.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PRESENTATION TOPICS OF INTEREST

Please review the ANI web site (www.ani.ac) and the past Autreat brochures (http://www.ani.ac/past-workshops.htm), to get an idea of ANI's philosophy and what Autreat is about. This will help you create the kind of presentation most likely to interest Autreat participants.

If you have never attended Autreat before, you may wish to consider attending first, before submitting a proposal to give a presentation. In our experience, presentations usually get more positive feedback when presenters have some familiarity with Autreat and its participants, before they give presentations there. Active participation in ANI’s online community, and attendance at other self-advocacy events run by and for autistic people, are other good ways to get a feel for how Autreat is different from typical autism conferences. If you wish to submit a proposal and you’ve never been to Autreat before, please give us as much information as possible about your past experience with other autistic-run activities and events.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF PRESENTERS?

If you submit a proposal, we expect you to be available to attend Autreat if we accept your proposal, and to give your presentation on the day and time scheduled. We make every effort to accommodate presenters' preferences in setting the Autreat schedule, but it is not always possible to give every presenter his or her preferred time slot.

Presenters are expected to send advance copies of any handouts or slides they plan to use, so that we can prepare alternate format copies for print-impaired attendees.

Presenters are expected to consent for their presentations to be recorded, and for the recordings to be sold by Autism Network International.

Presenters are invited to attend all of Autreat. If presenters opt not to attend the entire event, they are expected to arrive on-site by 8:30 a.m. for afternoon presentations, and to arrive the night before for morning presentations.

Please be prepared to meet these expectations if you decide to submit a proposal.

Presenters are also encouraged to submit an article on their topic for inclusion in the program book. Like handouts and visual aids, articles need to be submitted in a timely manner, so we can prepare copies in alternate formats.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR THE PRESENTERS?

Individual Autreat presenters receive free registration for Autreat, including on-site meals and lodging in a shared (2-person) room. (A private room may be available at the presenter’s own expense.) This free registration is for the presenter *only*, not for a presenter’s family members or support staff.

In the case of panel presentations consisting of three or more presenters, we offer one complete four-day Autreat registration, plus a single-day registration (including three meals and one overnight, if desired) for each additional panelist. Therefore, a panel of X presenters is entitled to a total of 4+(X-1) free days/overnights. Panelists may divide these free days amongst their members as they wish. Panel presenters are of course welcome to register and stay for additional days if they wish.

ANI is a volunteer-run, member-supported grassroots organization with minimal funding. We cannot reimburse for off-site expenses, nor can we pay travel expenses or honoraria. If your proposal is accepted, we will send you a formal letter of invitation if this would help you in raising your own travel funds.

Presenters are entitled to receive one free copy of the recording of their presentations.

PROPOSALS SHOULD INCLUDE:

* Your name and title (if any) exactly as you want them listed in program materials should your proposal be accepted

* Contact information (address, phone, fax and/or email if you have them)

* Title of your proposed presentation

* Detailed description for consideration by the Planning Committee

* Brief (5 sentences or less) abstract exactly as you want it listed in program materials should your proposal be accepted

* Indicate ONE theme that BEST relates to your proposed presentation:

[ ] Advocacy skills
[ ] Life skills/adaptive strategies
[ ] Helpful support services
[ ] Communication
[ ] Social/interpersonal issues
[ ] Personal/self-awareness/self-development issues
[ ] Autistic community and culture
[ ] Education
[ ] Employment
[ ] Family issues
[ ] Residential issues
[ ] Disability rights and politics
[ ] Autism research and theory
[ ] Other (describe):

* Indicate which group(s) you believe would find your proposed presentation of interest. Check as many as apply. Briefly describe what your presentation would offer to each group:

[ ] Autistic adults
[ ] Autistic teenagers
[ ] Family members of autistic people
[ ] Educators
[ ] Clinicians
[ ] Service providers
[ ] Other (specify):

* Brief (5 sentences or less) presenter bio exactly as you want it listed in program materials should your proposal be accepted

* Any audiovisual equipment you would need for your presentation

* If you have never presented at Autreat before, please also include an introduction for the Planning Committee summarizing your relevant experience, including any presentations or other education/advocacy activities elsewhere, and the nature of your interest in autism and/or in general disability issues.

PROPOSAL DEADLINE:

January 20, 2010

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Proposals can be submitted via email to proposals (at) autreat.com, or submitted online at www.ani.ac/aut10cfp.php, or sent via postal mail to

Autism Network International
P.O. Box 35448
Syracuse NY 13235
USA

When your proposal is received, you will be sent a brief acknowledgment confirming that we have received your proposal. If you have not received this confirmation within 48 hours of submitting your proposal, then we may not have received your proposal! If you haven’t received confirmation within 48 hours, please contact proposals (at) autreat.com and let us know. Please save a copy of your proposal, so you can resend it if necessary.

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO PRESENT, BUT I HAVE AN IDEA FOR A PRESENTATION I'D LIKE TO SEE?

If you want to make suggestions for Autreat presentations, or make comments about previous presentations or presenters, please fill out the questionnaire available at www.ani.ac/autplan2.php.

WHAT IF I WANT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT AUTREAT?

You can find a lot of general information, including a link to join the Autreat Information mailing list, at www.autreat.com. If you have specific questions and can't find the answers on the web page, you may send email to info (at) autreat.com.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Disability Studies Quarterly: Disability and Rhetoric

The profound insight of Disability Studies is its conception of disability as a representational system rather than as a medical problem, a deficit, or a personal tragedy (Thomson, 1997). In this view, disability is regarded not as a settled physical or cognitive fact but rather as a discourse, a collection of figures and narratives, tropes and topoi, speakers and audiences that suggest identities and positions in the world to those participating in the discourse. The analysis of disability, then, necessarily goes beyond medical and psychological perspectives to consider how words and other symbols may be used, recalling Kenneth Burke (1969), by human agents, “to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents” (41). Disability, to say it another way, is inherently rhetorical and may best be understood through methods of rhetorical inquiry and analysis.

To that end, a special issue of the Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ) will address the topic of rhetoric and disability. While Disability Studies has revealed the essentially discursive nature of disability, rhetorical theory and analysis promise to further the discussion by contributing a unique set of methods, terms, and concepts. Rhetorical method is a particularly important concern, and we are especially interested in essays that illustrate diverse methods and modes of rhetorical analysis as these relate to disability. Essays may analyze the workings of rhetoric in printed works about disability but also in other media, including film, music, web-texts, graphic novels, and other forms of sound and image.

We define “disability” broadly to include physical, cognitive, and intellectual difference. The ideal essays will enrich understandings of the relationship of rhetoric and disability, but will also serve as models for future scholarship in studies of symbolic representations of disability. Potential issues or topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Disability as, in, or and rhetoric
• Disability and or as trope
• Disability rhetorics in the media
• Disability rhetorics in the classroom, workplace, or home
• Disability rhetorics and narrative
• Disability and digital rhetorics
• Activism and rhetoric
• Disability and audience
• Disability and rhetorical appeals, the rhetorical canons, and/or the rhetorical triangle
• Disability and legal/governmental rhetorics
• Rhetorics of accessibility
• Rhetorical constructions of disabled identity

Timeline

• Queries or abstracts sent by February 1, 2010
• Full submissions due July 1, 2010
• Final revisions due November 31, 2010
• Publication in the Winter 2011 issue of DSQ.

Submission guidelines

Manuscripts must be in the form of a Word document and:

• Have a cover page that includes the author's name, institutional affiliation, and contact information
• Have an abstract of 100-150 words
• Be between 3,000-6,000 words in length (approximately 10-20 double-spaced pages)
• Provide full references for all citations
• Include a brief biography of the author (50-100 words)

Follow DSQ guidelines: http://www.dsq-sds.org/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Please send queries and submissions to John Duffy (jduffy@nd.edu) and
Melanie Yergeau (yergeau.1@osu.edu).

References

Burke, K. (1969). A rhetoric of motives. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Thomson, R. G. (1997). Disability, identity, and representation: An introduction. In R.G. Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 5-18.