[Air-L] Write for Cyborgology!

[David Banks]

Hi Everyone,

The Society Pages hosts Cyborgology, a blog about technology and society
written for a general audience. We are looking for new contributors so click
here
<https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/07/18/cyborgology-is-looking-for-new-regular-contributors/>
or read below to find out how to join the team!

-David

For nearly six years Cyborgology has been dedicated to producing thoughtful
essays and commentary about society’s relationship to technology. Writers
enjoy significant freedom to write essays and stories of varying length,
style, and topic. We are now looking for several new contributors to join
Cyborgology.

*What we are looking for:* People willing to write about society, culture,
and technology in an accessible but smart way. Contributions can take many
forms and we are flexible about writing frequency. Scrolling through the
last few months of Cyborgology is the best way to get an idea of the style
and frequency of pieces we want to see. We are especially interested in
writers from under-represented or marginalized subject positions. You do
not need to be affiliated with any institution of higher learning but you
do have to be comfortable writing about and through theoretical concepts.
Of course writing schedules are very flexible and we are open to whatever
work arrangement you can put together. The best way to know what kind of
work we want is to read the site and check out our submission guidelines
for guest posts.

*The benefits of writing for Cyborgology:* For better or worse, Cyborgology
is a volunteer effort. None of us get paid and we do not anticipate that
changing anytime soon. Writing for Cyborgology has, however, been known to
open up new opportunities of a monetary nature. We are also proud to have a
dedicated, smart audience that likes to share and discuss our ideas. Work
on Cyborgology has also been linked to and shared by large media
organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed,
Huffington Post, Pacific Standard, and many more. All writing on
Cyborgology is covered under a Creative Commons attribution license and
authors retain full control over their work. We are also a member of an
awesome community of blogs and publications under The Society Pages
umbrella.

*How to apply:* As our past and present contributors can attest– writing
for Cyborgology is a strange animal. Therefore, we’ve done our best to
simulate writing for Cyborgology in the application process. We want three
polished writing samples between 500-1000 words, at least two of which need
to grapple with a current event between now (July 18, 2016) and the due
date which is September 1, 2016. It is totally fine to send us something
you’ve published elsewhere or turned in for an assignment.  We may also ask
if we can run some of your submissions as guest posts before we make any
final decisions. Writing samples should be saved as either .doc or .docx
and sent as an attachment to david.adam.banks [at] gmail.com. In the email
please indicate the best email address to reach you, a short three sentence
bio, and any other accomplishments you think we should know about. A full
cover letter is not necessary.

*About Cyborgology: *Individuals and social groups have always been cyborgs
because we have always existed in tandem with technology. Today, with the
vast proliferation and diffusion of new technologies throughout society,
techno-human syntheses occur in more aspects of our lives than ever before.
Advances in medicine augment our bodies with technology (e.g., pills,
pacemakers, IUDs, breast implants, Viagra, contact lenses).  Communication
is increasingly technologically mediated (e.g., radio, television, the
web).  We are experiencing a proliferation of personal devices like the
smart phone, which is, essentially, a computer we carry with us wherever we
go, often sleeping with them at our bedsides and using them check our
profiles and messages first thing in the morning. It is not difficult to
imagine a future where we begin to look like the cyborgs found in movies;
however, our definition goes far beyond the half-human, half-robots
propelled into the popular imaginary by science fiction and cyberpunk
because technology is about more than electronics. The layout of a prison
or a school is a technology of discipline; language is a technology of
thought and communication; cultural norms themselves are technologies of
social organization—in every instance, technology is the product of a
particular historical moment and it becomes integrated into the social life
of that period.

Our focus is as broad as these examples suggest, but we most often focus on
new technologies. Today, the reality is that both the digital and the
material constantly augment one another to create a social landscape ripe
for new ideas. As Cyborgologists, we consider both the promise and the
perils of living in constant contact with technology.