[Commlist] Call for Chapter Proposals - Knowing Through Photography

Call for Chapter Proposals - Knowing Through Photography [Deadline: 
Friday 20 November 2026]


We are inviting proposals for an edited collection, /Knowing Through 
Photography/, on photographic practice as a form of research inquiry.


The place of photography in research is changing. Photographic practice 
is increasingly recognised not simply as a means of documenting or 
communicating research, but as a way of undertaking it. This collection 
responds to that shift by asking a question that has received 
comparatively little sustained interdisciplinary attention: what does 
photographic practice itself contribute to thinking? How does it shape 
what research can know? If making photographs is itself a form of 
inquiry, what kinds of knowledge does it make possible, and what can it 
reveal that may be difficult to access through interviews, observation, 
text, or other qualitative approaches?


We welcome contributions from researchers, artists, curators, and 
creative practitioners across the arts, humanities, and social sciences 
who critically examine photography as a way of knowing. We are 
particularly interested in chapters that do more than use photographs as 
evidence, illustration or documentation. Contributions should make a 
clear argument about how photographic practice participates in the 
research process and shapes the knowledge that emerges from it.


We are especially interested to receive proposals that speak to one or 
more of the six key themes:

 1.

    Conditions of Encounter: How do the encounters, negotiations, and
    decisions involved in making photographs shape what research comes
    to know?

 2.

    Relational Visibility: Who or what becomes visible through
    photography, on whose terms, and what does this mean for the
    knowledge research can claim?

 3.

    Evidence and Uncertainty: How can researchers account for what they
    learn through photography, including when images resist certainty,
    are missing from an archive, or were never made?

 4.

    Being in Place: How does photographing a place over time, through
    return, walking, or dwelling, shape what can be known about it?

 5.

    Contested Places: How can photographic practice reveal how cities,
    landscapes, and environments are made, divided, and fought over, and
    who is displaced or excluded in the process?

 6.

    Remembering Place: How can photographic practice recover, keep in
    circulation, or reimagine histories of place that official accounts
    leave out?


The six themes provide a starting point rather than a fixed framework 
for the collection. We welcome proposals that engage with these 
questions, move between them, or offer other perspectives on photography 
as a form of research inquiry.

We are particularly interested in contributions exploring areas such as 
those listed below, although this list is not exhaustive:

  *

    Photography as inquiry and research practice

  *

    Practice-based, practice-led, and artistic research

  *

    Evidence, rigour, and the articulation of practice-based knowledge

  *

    Materiality, making, and image-making as research

  *

    Embodied, sensory, affective, and relational inquiry

  *

    Ethics, participation, collaboration, and co-creation

  *

    Place, landscape, environment, and spatial inquiry

  *

    Urban experience and place-based research

  *

    Displacement, borders, and urban justice

  *

    Identity, selfhood, gender, and sexuality

  *

    Memory, archives, heritage, and historical inquiry

  *

    Digital image cultures and networked photographic practices

  *

    Emerging image-making technologies, including AI and machine vision

  *

    More-than-human and multispecies research

  *

    Photography beyond the Global North

  *

    Decolonising photographic knowledge and research practices

  *

    Curation, exhibition, and public engagement as research

  *

    Photography in dialogue with moving image, sound, performance,
    installation, and other creative practices

  *

    Critical reflections on the possibilities and limitations of
    photography as inquiry


The collection follows on from a workshop, of the same name, held in 
October 2026. The primary focus of the collection is original academic 
or scholarly book chapters. We are also open to discussing other forms 
of contribution where the format itself contributes meaningfully to the 
collection’s methodological concerns. Prospective contributors with an 
idea for an alternative format are welcome to contact us directly in 
advance.


For consideration, please submit:

  *

    A 350-500 word abstract that clearly indicates the data, fieldwork,
    or body of photographic practice the chapter is based on.

  *

    A 150-200 word biography for each author.

  *

    A declaration of any AI use and willingness, if accepted, to meet
    the full chapter deadline.


Submissions should be original and unpublished, and based on work that 
is complete or nearing completion, rather than speculative or planned 
research. Final chapters will be 5,000-6,000 words in length. The 
proposal for the collection will be submitted to a leading academic 
publisher.


Timeline:

  *

    Proposal deadline: Friday 20 November 2026

  *

    Notification of outcome: Tuesday 1 December 2026

  *

    Full chapters expected by: Thursday 1 April 2027

  *

    All chapters will be reviewed, receive feedback and guidance, with
    final chapters expected in summer 2027.


Please submit your proposal by Friday 20 November 2026using our online 
submission form:


_Knowing Through Photography – Fill in form_ 
<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=9wmNTnnMy0yRSaQjjdF0IsHAq0kLg-JLoMDnOnECnyBUMDY1RTdPRFVLTEMxUU5ZMFQxQUo4Q09MNS4u>


_https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=9wmNTnnMy0yRSaQjjdF0IsHAq0kLg-JLoMDnOnECnyBUMDY1RTdPRFVLTEMxUU5ZMFQxQUo4Q09MNS4u_ 
<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=9wmNTnnMy0yRSaQjjdF0IsHAq0kLg-JLoMDnOnECnyBUMDY1RTdPRFVLTEMxUU5ZMFQxQUo4Q09MNS4u>


The form will ask for a 350–500 word chapter abstract, a 100–200 word 
biography for each author, and confirmation of your availability to meet 
the proposed chapter deadline.


For enquiries or to discuss a potential contribution, please contact 
John Post at (j.m.post /at/ stir.ac.uk).

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