Call for Papers
Gender, Sexuality, Information: A Reader
While information needs and behavior have become a central research
concern in library and information studies, the particularities of
gender and sexuality have yet to be centered in the field. Bringing
queer and feminist theories into conversation with current LIS
research, Gender, Sexuality, Information: A Reader addresses this
gap, gathering existing research along with new scholarship on the
intersection of gender and sexuality and information use.
Contributors address a range of concerns, including paradigms of
information needs and behavior research, methodological challenges,
and current approaches to assessing and meeting LGBTQ and women's
information needs. Responding to emergent critiques of positivism
and behaviorism in LIS scholarship, this collection also seeks to
trouble what we think we mean when we talk about gender and sex, as
well as "information" and "behavior," as settled, stable constructs.
Critical and Interdisciplinary Focus
Current work in disciplines as diverse as legal theory, literary
criticism, design, anthropology, and technology studies exercise a
profound impact on LIS research. At the same time, the somewhat
nebulous sub-disciplines within our field, such as information
seeking behavior, information structures, archival studies,
museology, information retrieval, and information policy, have been
connected by researchers in new and innovative ways. LIS scholarship
has also sought in recent years to challenge traditional approaches
and suggest new directions for research into the purposes,
practices, phenomenon, and organization of information. This reader
serves as a comprehensive multidisciplinary anthology where
different epistemologies and methodologies meet. It offers a timely
and reasoned contribution to feminist and queer LIS research and
promotes perspectives that can serve the cause of social justice.
Possible topics
Manuscripts can cover a range of topics, both professional and
theoretical. The editors strongly encourage submissions concerning
the intersection of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity,
religion, and socio-economics. Possible topics include but are not
limited to the following: cataloging and classification, assessing
user needs, information behavior, alternative social science
methods, records management, preservation, documentation, oral
history, collection development, curatorship, digital libraries and
archives, Internet studies, human-computer interaction, sexual
health, sex positive perspectives, activist or oppositional new
media, informatics, queer or feminist zines, web design and digital
aesthetics, computer coding, digital humanities, censorship and
intellectual freedom, information technology policy, children and
young adult services, international and comparative LIS issues,
grant writing, administration and management, and history of the
book and publishing.
Submission Guidelines
The editors encourage practitioners, activists, and both established
and emerging scholars to submit manuscripts by September 1, 2011.
Manuscripts should rage from 5,000-8,000 words and use the Chicago
Manual of Style (Chicago University Press, 2010). Manuscripts should
be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) to
<mailto:(gsireader.submissions /at/ gmail.com)>(gsireader.submissions /at/ gmail.com).
About the editors
Rebecca Dean and Patrick Keilty are PhD candidates in information
studies with a concentration in women's studies at the University of
California, Los Angeles.
Contact
UCLA Department of Information Studies
GSE&IS Building, Box 951520
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520
Phone: (310) 825-8799
Dean's email: becdean[at]gmail[dot]com
Keilty's email: pkeilty[at]gmail[dot]com
For more information, please visit
<http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/events/fliers/gender_reader.pdf>http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/events/fliers/gender_reader.pdf.
--
Patrick Keilty
PhD Candidate
Information Studies, UCLA
<http://www.patrickkeilty.com/>http://www.patrickkeilty.com/