[Air-L] C4S - Stories from the Field

[Marilou Polymeropoulou]

With apologies for X-posting

Call for Submissions: Stories From the Field

Dear Colleagues,

We are looking for submissions for an edited volume addressed to academic and general publics entitled ‘Stories From the Field’ which aims at being a collection of short, autobiographical stories as experienced and written by fieldworkers.

The selected stories should be non-fictional, experienced by fieldworkers while conducting research and/or other workings in their field(s). The definition of ‘field’ and ‘fieldworker’ is deliberately absent to encourage the submission of contributions from various disciplines. 

Stories can be of any nature provided they reflect experiences in the field. Some examples of these could include, but are not limited to:

Significant research turning points
Errors, serendipity and unexpected discoveries
Interlocutors’ shared knowledge of moral and/or religious systems
Emotional stages in a fieldworkers’ journey
Comedic recountings of field experiences
Mistrust and doubt as obstacles in the field
Eerie and surreal experiences
Ethical hiccups and mishaps
Teaching and learning how to be (or not to be) a fieldworker
Gaining access to the field
Data loss and …emotional management


Please send a brief abstract (approximately 250 words) describing what your story will be about and a short biographical note (approximately 150 words) to thefieldstories at gmail.com by Monday 28 March 2022. Contributors can expect to receive a response by 15 May 2022. 

Completed stories should be up to 4000 words in length but this may be reviewed by the literary agent. These will be due by Friday 2 September 2022, after which we will begin the review process.

For any questions, please contact the editors Marilou Polymeropoulou and Sylvia Thornbush in the same e-mail address. 


Dr Marilou Polymeropoulou
Senior Tutor @ OxSFC
Research Affiliate @ ISCA (Oxon)