[ATTW-L] CFP — Rhetorics of Reproductive Justice in Public and Civic Contexts
Maria Novotny
novotnym at uwosh.edu
Wed Nov 28 19:03:55 UTC 2018
(Please forgive cross-postings)
Dear Colleagues,
Lori Beth De Hertogh, Erin Frost, and I are excited to announce a CFP
entitled “Rhetorics of Reproductive Justice in Public and Civic Contexts”
for a Special Issue of *Reflections*.
If you have questions or would like to pitch an idea prior to formally
submitting a proposal, feel free to contact us.
Proposals are due *September 1, 2019*. The full CFP is below. A PDF copy is
attached, and a digital copy can also be found at this link
<https://reflectionsjournal.net/>. Please share widely and let us know if
you have any questions!
Best,
Maria, Lori Beth, and Erin
*******************************************************
Call for Papers
Reflections Special Issue: Rhetorics of Reproductive Justice in Public and
Civic Contexts
Guest Editors Maria Novotny, Lori Beth De Hertogh, and Erin Frost
Recent reports reveal that the U.S. has the highest rate of maternal deaths
in the developed world, particularly among low-income, rural, and African
American women (NPR, 2017). Changes to the Supreme Court endanger the
viability of Roe v. Wade. In Iowa, a judge threatens to ban nearly all
abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected (NPR, 2018). In Wisconsin,
the state legislature rejects the repeal of the “cocaine mom law,” which
opponents argue forces undue medical care on pregnant women (Reuters,
2017). These reproductive threats are not limited to only women’s rights.
For example, in Oklahoma, Governor Mary Fallin signed a law allowing
adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ couples, single
individuals, and non-Christians (New York Times, 2018). Such action would
threaten individuals who cannot biologically reproduce but seek access to
alternative-family building options to have a child.
These examples demonstrate the numerous ways reproductive rights in the
United States are under assault from social, economic, and political
mechanisms that seek to dismantle individuals’ abilities to make informed
reproductive choices—or any reproductive choices at all. But just as
importantly, these examples illustrate the urgency for and the possibility
of community-based rhetorics that speak to, define, and make visible
methods of counteraction. We seek examinations and examples of public
rhetoric and civic writing that engage reproductive justice. More
specifically, this special issue focuses on community activities and
activism as sites of resistance to the trends we describe above.
In briefly tracing the field of rhetoric’s scholarly landscape, we already
see this kind of rhetorical work occurring. However, it has largely
occurred in theoretical spaces; for example, scholars such as Mary Lay,
Laura Gurak and Clare Gravon (Body Talk: Rhetoric, Technology, Reproduction),
Marika Seigel (Rhetorics of Pregnancy), and Robin Jensen (Infertility:
Tracing the History of a Transformative Term), to name a few, have
established an exigence for rhetorical scholarship that addresses
intersections between reproductive bodies, discourse, and technology. We
seek to highlight community-based activities that parallel this scholarly
work, rooting a material-rhetorical response to reproductive (in)justice in
community writing, community engagement, and public rhetoric. We seek both
a shift and alliance between traditional scholarly modes of resistance and
public, unruly rhetorics (Alexander, Jarrett, & Welch). Recently emerging
national issues (like those cited above) call for a new body of scholarship
that is responsive to these quickly-evolving, kairotic moments where
reproductive rights, perhaps more so now than in decades past, are under
such direct public attack. In light of such circumstances, the goal of this
special issue is to begin to move rhetorical research on reproductive
issues toward community-based scholarship by emphasizing the ways and means
through which organizations, groups, and communities engage reproductive
rights in civic and public contexts.
With this in mind, we seek submissions that will serve rhetorical and
public scholars of reproductive justice in helping shape and define this
growing research area; we welcome works that consider potential usage by
non-academic stakeholders, as well. We especially encourage proposals that
engage rhetorics of reproductive justice through the context of community
writing and public and civic rhetorics and that, in some fashion or
another, consider the following questions:
-
How can we use rhetoric and public writing to achieve reproductive
justice in civic and public contexts?
-
What can we learn from organizations/programs/activists engaged in
reproductive justice? How do these communities use public writing for
reproductive justice?
-
How might we move discussions of reproductive justice beyond feminist
rhetorical lenses? What other lenses—queer, trans, decolonial,
networked, legal—might be leveraged for and advantaged by the presence
of such discussions?
-
What does reproductive justice look like for indigenous women, women of
color, and the LGBTQ+ community?
-
What does reproductive justice look like in digital spaces? What are the
limits and benefits of tackling reproductive threats in these spaces?
-
How might we take up discussions of reproductive justice produced by
non-academic writers and rhetors?
-
What interdisciplinary and participatory approaches might help us
identify and respond to contemporary reproductive threats?
-
What examples exist in our field that move rhetorical theory towards
applicable toolkits and methods guiding public action and advocacy on
issues related to reproductive justice?
-
What sub-fields, or related areas of inquiry, might rhetoricians draw
upon to engage in actions that support reproductive justice?
-
What is our role or responsibility as rhetoricians serving the public
when it comes to addressing issues of reproductive justice?
We welcome shorter pieces, as well as innovative and creative approaches to
the topic of reproductive justice, that are rooted in public and civic
contexts, methods, and approaches and that directly engage in the community
sites and spaces where such activism occurs. Individuals, co-authors, or
research collectives should submit a proposal of no more than 500 words as
a .pdf file by September 1, 2019 to the three guest editors (Maria Novotny
- novotnym at uwosh.edu, Lori Beth DeHertogh - dehertlb at jmu.edu, and Erin
Frost - froste at ecu.edu). If you have questions, or would like to pitch an
idea prior to formally submitting a proposal, feel free to contact the
guest editors.
Please note that we are announcing this CFP early to provide researchers
additional time gather community-engaged research connected to reproductive
justice.
Timeline for Submissions
Proposals due: September 1, 2019
Authors notified: September 15, 2019
Full articles due: December 15, 2019
Revision requests to authors: March 15, 2020
Revisions due: June 15, 2020
Anticipated publication date: Fall 2020
--
Maria Novotny, PhD
Assistant Professor
Professional & Digital Writing
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Department of English
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, WI 54901
222 Radford Hall (office)
novotnym at uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7475
Pronouns: she, her, hers
website: www.marianovotny.com
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