[Commlist] CfP: MeCCSA Networking Knowledge Special Issue - Climate, Creatures and COVID-19: Environment and Animals in 21st Century Media Discourse

The official publication of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, /Networking 
Knowledge 
<https://www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow/announcement/view/48>/, 
invites abstracts for an upcoming Special Issue on /Climate, Creatures 
and COVID-19: Environment and Animals in 21st Century Media Discourse/. 
This is a fully indexed, open-access peer-reviewed journal, featuring 
content from postgraduate and early career researchers. The deadline for 
abstracts is *1st September 2020*.

Please see full details of the call below. These can also be found at 
the following link 
https://www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow/announcement/view/48

We hope to feature original contributions from across disciplines and 
from as diverse a scholarship as possible, and would be very grateful if 
you could share this call widely.

Any questions or queries should be directed to 
(rebecca.jones /at/ strath.ac.uk) <mailto:(rebecca.jones /at/ strath.ac.uk)>

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Few issues dominate twenty-first century media and public consciousness 
quite like climate crisis and the environment. We are becoming 
increasingly aware of the importance of our co-existence with the 
more-than-human world in our lives and broader ecologies (Haraway, 2008, 
2016), and as a result are seeking new ways of discussing and ‘thinking 
with’ environmental issues, nature and non-human animals. This has 
presented new challenges and opportunities in areas including news 
media, TV and film, radio and social media.

A body of ecological research exists which is essentially scientific in 
nature, but with much of it requiring paid access, restricted to an 
academic audience, and/or presented in language which limits 
accessibility to the general public. As a result, those outside academia 
are particularly dependent on all forms of media for information, 
education and entertainment about environment, climate and nature.

Ecological feminist work, by scholars including Carolyn Merchant (1983), 
Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva (1993), Greta Gaard (1993), and Carol J. 
Adams and Lori Gruen (2014) has, for decades, gone a considerable way to 
demonstrating the possibilities for, and importance of, uniting academic 
research on the more-than-human world with practice, and making 
environmental and species themes a matter of general public input and 
engagement. This has proven to be a profoundly cross- and 
inter-disciplinary topic, inspiring research and commentary across the 
humanities and social sciences.

However, this existing research invites updated considerations of the 
need for media to articulate holistic, rooted understandings of the 
place of the human in the world. There is a need for further work which 
speaks to the rapidly changing reality of the twenty-first century, 
particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly 
increasing urgency of climate crises, and changed ways of working, 
communicating, and thinking and being in the world. In particular, there 
is a need to consider how media voices during the current pandemic, and 
increased interest in environmental themes over the last few years, have 
informed public action, attitudes and even policy.

/Networking Knowledge/ invites contributions from postgraduate and early 
career researchers for a special issue dealing with this topic from /any 
/disciplinary perspective or across disciplines, including both 
quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Topics may include, but are/not/limited to:

  * The language of mainstream media and climate crisis.
  * Climate discourse and the free press.
  * Environment and (de)colonisation.
  * Media representations of wild/tame animals.
  * Environmental discourse in the Global South.
  * Consumerism and animal welfare.
  * ‘Cli-Fi’ and environmental storytelling as method.
  * Focus groups and environmental themes.
  * Documentary filmmaking and nature.
  * Environmental debate on social media.
  * Environmentally (un)friendly advertising.
  * Community engagement in green initiatives.
  * Animals and live performance.
  * Environmentalism and satire.
  * Animals in children’s TV.
  * Nature and landscapes in popular fiction.
  * Media portrayals of veganism/vegetarianism.
  * Environmentalism and political representation.

Please submit a 500-word abstract (not including references) and 
100-word bio to the journal guest editor Rebecca Jones 
(rebecca.jones /at/ strath.ac.uk) <mailto:(rebecca.jones /at/ strath.ac.uk)> by *1 
September 2020*. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by *30 
September*, with full papers (detailed submission guidelines can be 
found here 
<https://www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow/information/authors>) 
to be submitted for peer review via our OJS system by *11 January 2021*. 
We aim to publish the special issue in the *summer of 2021*.


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------