[Air-L] CFP: Autoethnographies of Care

[Devina Sarwatay]

(Apologies for crossposting)

Hello,

Hope your weekend is off to a good start.

Please find a CFP I put together below. I hope it interests you but, if
not, kindly share with your networks and put me in touch with authors you
believe would be a good fit. Thank you!

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*Call for Papers: Special Issue of a Journal*

*Topic*

Autoethnographies of Care: Foregrounding the experiences of early career
researchers

*Overview*

To be a young researcher in the social sciences, especially in media and
communication studies, comes with its own set of challenges and learning
opportunities. While our identities might lend us some advantage as we
conduct research in a fertile field, especially with certain sections of
participants, it might also be part of the problem which acts as roadblocks
in access, digital divide, equity, reciprocity, and respect. This special
issue seeks to present and engage with narratives of early career
researchers at different stages of their academic careers:
doctoral/postdoctoral students, lecturers, assistant professors, and
researchers. These personal narratives will range from talking about the
self and surrounding environment to the possibility of looking inward to
understand and take the community forward, and from drawing resonance with
text to (re)designing mechanisms for academic contemplation. Using
autoethnographic accounts of care, or lack thereof, experienced by the
scholars featured, their personal narratives will be tied to broader
social, cultural, political, and economic contexts of their local realities
for reflection on and recommendations for inclusivity such that a richer
engagement with the field can be undertaken for newer, nuanced meanings to
emerge.

To give you a glimpse, a panel we are organising for the International
Communication Association (ICA)’s 71st Annual Conference to be held in May
2021 in the main theme session has six of us giving our accounts and
experiences as early career scholars in media and communication studies.
The first scholar emphasizes the necessity of weaving an element of care in
studying gaming cultures in India. He proposes a meta-reflective mechanism
for researchers to contemplate on gamers’ ludic practices and experiences
such that newer understandings can emerge from the field. The second
researcher interrogates the power structures that enforce restrictive
practices while demanding invisible labour off of young researchers. The
third scholar questions the neoliberal narratives surrounding shifting
careers, the isolated experience of archival work, and how to deal with
anxieties and vulnerabilities. The fourth paper unravels common threads
between the doctoral student’s life and the women in her text as she
completes her PhD with a focus on cinema studies. She identifies otherizing
and siloing can create a culture of silence to the detriment of women
researchers, and that gendered self-care, presentation, representation, and
normalization are important. The fifth paper draws on the lived experiences
of an international doctoral student as she tried to navigate her field
several thousand miles and cultural milieus away from her home. She
outlines the perspectives of care she utilized in her work and shares
ethical challenges and possible core values for other fellow international
students. The last paper is about self-inquiry and how experiences from the
field can be tied back to community centred endeavours to care for them.

*Submission*

We invite early career scholars and researchers in media and communication
studies to take an autoethnographic approach to their journeys as
doctoral/postdoctoral scholars and early career researchers/academicians
and reflect on their experiences within their broader social, cultural,
political, economic contexts in their local realities and recommend changes
for better care, inclusion, and access. Please find details below:

*To submit:* Full Papers (4,000 words ALL INCLUSIVE) including an Abstract
(250-300 words); Keywords (5-8 words); and relevant references in APA 7th
edition citation and referencing format.

*Guidelines:* MS Word, A4 size with 1” margins, Times New Roman, font size
12, APA 7th edition language and grammar as found here
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/verb-tense).
Papers need to double spaced and justify aligned. Kindly proofread your
paper for grammatical, spelling, and other errors before submission. Please
let me know in case you need help with this.

*Tables/Figures:* Please include original tables/figures at the end of your
article if needed. If it is copyrighted material, kindly have permission to
use ready. Inclusion of tables/figures is subject to the guidelines of the
journal.

*Additional information:* Please have a clear explanation of the main
argument of your essay and how the submission contributes to the aims of
this special issue in no more than 250-300 words on the cover page of your
article. Your cover page also needs to have your personal details like
name, designation, affiliation, email address, and the title of your essay.

*Timelines:* Authors can expect feedback on their essay by 11th June 2021
and revisions are expected to be submitted by 11th July 2021. Invited
revised submissions will undergo an editorial review followed by a peer
review following the usual procedures of the journal. Approximately 10-12
papers will be sent out for the full peer review. Therefore, the invitation
does not guarantee acceptance into the special issue.

Please *email* your submissions to *devina.sarwatay at gmail.com
<devina.sarwatay at gmail.com>* strictly on or before the *10th of May 2021*.
Feel free to reach out with queries regarding your submission to the email
above.

Devina Sarwatay,

Senior Research Fellow (UGC-NET) and PhD Student, Department of
Communication, University of Hyderabad, India

Graduate Student Member, Media Education Lab, Harrington School of
Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island, USA

—End of Call—

Warm Regards,
Devina Sarwatay

Senior Research Fellow (UGC-NET) and PhD Student,
Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad, India

Graduate Student Member, Media Education Lab,
Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island,
USA
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