[Air-L] CFP: Autobiography 2.0

[May Friedman]

CALL FOR PAPERS
 
Autobiography 2.0: Family, Relationality and Online Life Writing
 
An edited collection by May Friedman (Ryerson University) and Silvia Schultermandl (University of Graz)
 
We are looking for original chapters which discuss representations of family and kinship in online media such as Twitter, PostSecret, Facebook, Storify and Instagram and the ways in which these digital autobiographies innovate our understandings of life writing genres. Our collection seeks to bring together research on the self-in-relation from both a narratological angle and from the perspective of gender studies, queer theory, postcolonial and transnational studies. We are interested in discussing new and shifting understandings of how we define life writing practices differently in an age of online expressions in various verbal and visual forms, and through the lens of family, broadly defined. Building on our two prior collections, chapters should explore a transnational sensibility (Friedman and Schultermandl, 2011) which honors the ambiguity of borders, families, and identities and views “a lack of fixity as simultaneously inevitable and rich in possibility.” These ideas can be applied to negotiations of identity, relationality and kinship though quick media usage (Friedman und Schultermandl, 2016).
 
Possible contributions may include, but are not limited to discussions which pursue the following questions:
-       How is relationality mediated differently in an online context and how does this impact our ideas about family and kinship?
-       What issues of privacy and property are connected to the online presence of digital memoirs?
-       Which different reading practices do we need to bring to the multi-layered online text of autobiographies 2.0?
-       How does reading online autobiographies create kinship ties among readers?
-       How are traditional modalities of identity (race, gender, ability, class, etc.) destabilized by online life writing?
 
We invite 500-word chapter abstracts of critical scholarly, creative, and autoethnographic essays. Deadline is June 1, 2016. Please send inquires and /or abstracts to May Friedman (may.friedman at ryerson.ca) <mailto:>  AND Silvia Schultermandl (silvia.schultermandl at uni-graz.at <mailto:silvia.schultermandl at uni-graz.at>).
 
For more information on our prior projects:
 
Growing up Transnational: Identity and Kinship in a Global Era
http://www.utppublishing.com/Growing-Up-Transnational-Identity-and-Kinship-in-a-Global-Era.html <http://www.utppublishing.com/Growing-Up-Transnational-Identity-and-Kinship-in-a-Global-Era.html>
 
Click and Kin: Transnational Identity and Quick Media
http://www.utppublishing.com/Click-and-Kin-Transnational-Identity-and-Quick-Media.html <http://www.utppublishing.com/Click-and-Kin-Transnational-Identity-and-Quick-Media.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May Friedman
Associate Professor
School of Social Work, Ryerson University
350 Victoria St. Toronto, ON M5B 2K3
Office: 208-D Eric Palin Hall
416-979-5000 x2525
may.friedman at ryerson.ca <mailto:may.friedman at ryerson.ca>