[ATTW-L] CFP Rhetorics of Data: Collection, Consent, & Critical Digital Literacies Due 3/15

Fri Mar 1 23:32:03 UTC 2019

(Apologies for cross-posting)

Dear colleagues,
As you prepare for the upcoming 4Cs and ATTW conferences, a reminder that
proposals for *Rhetorics of Data: Collection, Consent, & Critical Digital
Literacies *a special issue of *Computers and Composition* are *due March
15, 2019*.

The full announcement is below and attached.

Any questions can be addressed to: rhetoricsofdata at gmail.com

Best,

Maria Novotny and Les Hutchinson

------------------------------

CALL FOR PROPOSALS -- Special Issue of *Computers and Composition*

*Rhetorics of Data: Collection, Consent, & Critical Digital Literacies*

*Guest Editors*: Les Hutchinson (Michigan State University) and Maria
Novotny (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh)

Given the extent of regular breaking news coverage of user privacy
violations (such as the recent whistleblowing on the Facebook and Cambridge
Analytica collaboration or the 2017 Equifax data breach), *Rhetorics of
Data* presents an opportunity for rhetorical action in regard to ethical
questions about data collection, consent, and the need to acquire critical
digital literacies as response. This special issue draws on the journal’s
history of scholarship that has defined critical digital literacies with
regard to data collection. In *2008
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461507000989>*,
Stephanie Vie noticed that, despite students having a great deal of
experience with digital technologies, they lacked “critical technological
skills.” Then, drawing from Vie’s scholarship, Estee Beck (*2015
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S8755461515000092>*)
argued that “if educators ask students to dig into digital spaces that use
tracking technologies, then they also have some responsibility to teach
students about invisible digital identities, how to become more informed
about digital tracking, and how to possibly opt-out of behavioral
marketing.” Kevin Brock and Dawn Shepherd (*2016
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S875546151530013X>*)
noted that our discipline’s tendency to focus on the pragmatic nature of
procedural rhetoric for how it promotes “code literacy” has lacked an
attention to the rhetorical potential behind people’s social, political,
and cultural uses of technology for persuasive means. John Gallagher (*2017
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S8755461516300652>*),
too, believed that computers and writing educators have an obligation to
teach students to consider algorithmic audiences when composing in the
Internet. Following Gallagher’s argument, Dustin Edwards (*2018
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461516300597>*)
agreed that online writers should attend to digital audiences like
algorithms, but they should also contend with larger institutional
structures that have designed the algorithms that run platforms as well as
the policies that shape users’ online experiences.

What has yet to be addressed by this critical conversation in the field is
an attention to the correlation between consent and data. Our special issue
specifically extends these conversations and connects to the call in the
forthcoming *Computers & Composition* special issue *Composing Algorithms:
Writing (with) Rhetorical Machines
<https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/02/15/composing-algorithms-writing-with-rhetorical-machines>*
by
Aaron Beveridge, Sergio C. Figueiredo, and Steven K. Holmes. In their CFP,
they argue that “We need to better understand the problems posed by
algorithmic mediation, but we also need to get involved in making
algorithms and studying them through computational and digital methods.”
Our own special issue addresses this need by reflecting on the new scenes,
methods, and pedagogies required for modeling critical digital literacy
practices that promote user agency and consent surrounding rhetorics of
data, which is often mediated through algorithms. We define critical
digital literacies as critical methods of inquiry that 1) *identify* ethical
concerns or issues within a technological infrastructure, 2) *understand* the
rhetorical implications of these concerns or issues for how they impact
people (users and non-users), and 3) *respond* with a range of tactics that
promote more ethical outcomes for use of these technologies.

We offer this special issue as a designated space for contributors to both
identify and understand how data operates rhetorically, but also that
contributors offer action and response to issues concerning data
collection. Data is more than a stagnant object; it is personal information
collected through complex algorithms (Beck, 2015; Gallagher, 2017; Edwards,
2018) that often function without user knowledge, but is then commodified
and appropriated across networks by political and corporate giants, and
their unknown third-party affiliates. As Amidon and Reyman (2015) argue,
user contributions are the very content that “‘writes’ the social web into
existence,” and thus create enormous value.

This special issue seeks to build off of these conversations, asking
questions such as:

●      How do we take up issues of data collection and ethics in our
theories, teaching, research, and politics?

●      What theories can guide our pedagogies and research to implement
critical digital literacies responses in our writing classrooms?

●      Where do we locate the impetus for critical digital literacies
outside of the university and in our communities?

●      What ethical approaches to data collection can we adopt to better
protect others while we educate and research?

●      How are other fields examining and teaching critical digital
literacies and what may rhetoric and composition earn and/or apply from
such methods?

●      What role does data collection play in online writing environments,
including (but not limited to) social media spaces and composing platforms
like Google Docs?

●      How does the design and language of Terms of Service and Privacy
Policies affect users of online technologies and platforms? What do users
need for these policies to be more accessible? How can we teach these
practices in our writing classrooms?

Contributions to this special issue will extend and forward these scholarly
conversations by emphasizing the role of consent when enacting critical
rhetorical action--response--in the classroom, in communities, and in our
public sphere.

Examples of such responses could look like

●      the redesign of Terms of Service/Conditions and Privacy Policies to
support user consent;

●      research gathered from community-based workshops that educate others
on a particular privacy issue to promote critical digital literacy;

●      consensual website or app design;

●      service-learning assignments where students collaborate with a
technological company to user test online safety of a digital product;

●      collaborative discussions regarding the creation of online spaces
that promote intersectional resistance to marginalization and oppression;

●      and other critical, creative actions to ethical concerns surrounding
data collection.

*Timeline**

*Proposals due: March 15, 2019*

Preliminary decision on authors: May 15, 2019

First drafts of 6,000-7,000 words (not including bib/works cited) due:
January 15, 2020

Feedback from editors on first drafts returned to author/s: March 15, 2020

Article revisions due: June 15, 2020

Article sent out for blind review: June 30, 2020

Feedback from blind review returned to author/s: September 1, 2020

Second article revisions due: January 1, 2021

Ready for copyediting: February 1, 2021

Publication: Fall 2021

*Our timeline provides the time and space for contributing authors to
design classes to incorporate these foci for this upcoming academic year
and/or obtain IRB for new research if needed. This is intentional as we
understand our call, emphasizing *response*, may require additional
research time.

*Submission and Contact Details*

Individuals, co-authors, or collectives should submit a 250-500 word
proposal that clearly identifies an ethical, rhetorical issue concerning
data collection and consent, proposes an engaged response for addressing
this issue, a brief address of contribution to the field(s), and an
overview of the article. Proposals should be submitted as .doc or .docx
files to Les Hutchinson and Maria Novotny at rhetoricsofdata at gmail.com.

The editors enthusiastically encourage those interested to contact us for
information or with any questions prior to submitting a proposal.
Considering the special issue’s focus on response, we are happy to think
through ideas together to ensure the success of the proposal.
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