CFP: Edited Collection on Positionality in Writing Studies

WORKING TITLE

Storied Practices: Positionality in Writing Studies

EDITORS

Kristine Acosta, Michelle Cowan, Rebecca Rickly, Sierra Sinor, Nancy Small, Erica M. Stone

LINK TO FULL CFP

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NfLdEmx8diFnVIEC9KjXpcwXXv5qgjtJ00P4U8-8htE/edit?usp=sharing

MOTIVATION AND RATIONALE

Graduate programs in Writing Studies and in Communication Studies value research: almost every program requires at least one course on methods and methodologies for knowledge making. Research capabilities empower us. However, if we aren’t careful, research can dehumanize and colonize (Agboka, 2014; Tuhiwai Smith, 2012; Walton, 2016). At all stages of the process, one aspect of better ethical practice is asking ourselves to address positionality, the embodied and contextualized forms influencing (and possibly biasing) what we hear/see/do when conducting, analyzing, and publishing our projects (Rowe, 2014). Despite growing awareness of these risks and opportunities, however, positionality-as-a-practice is less directly discussed in our graduate programs, let alone in the research publications themselves.

We want to continue shifting the research paradigm toward engaging positionality-as-practice. Although writing and communication fields have been attending to critical consideration of these issues (e.g., Lockett, Ruiz, Sanchez, & Carter, 2021), analysis tends to revisit the work of others rather than inviting authors to speak to their own projects. As a result, teachers and learners lack insider-narrated models for how positionality operates in research. We need what Kirsch and Ritchie (2008) call a "rigorously reflexive examination of ourselves" (p. 143). To best address that gap, we turn to story as a reflective vehicle for this collection. Storytelling creates spaces outside the strict procedural lines of production and allows us to reveal our situated ponderings as individuals engaged in complicated activities. Contemporary scholarship continues to amplify the value of storywork as experts elucidate theories and practices for it as a methodology (see, for example, Archibald, Lee-Morgan, & De Santolo, 2019; Martinez, 2020; Wilson, 2008; Windchief & San Pedro, 2019). For this edited collection, we invite you to join in shifting the paradigm and to share your story as a means of relating and reflecting over your positionality in research-related roles and experiences.

PROJECT VISION AND GOALS

We envision this book as a conversation surrounding positionality and the lived experiences of researchers and their participants. Using narrative as a vehicle, we hope to promote stories that do not shy away from the complexities of research. We want to know how others interrogate themselves while completing research and the impacts this has on both product and person. It is our goal for future readers of this book to be able to refer to authentic examples of what the research process looks like and what the connection to the researcher looks like within that process. We welcome stories that discuss different kinds of positioning, failure, and how people find themselves in relation to their work. Reflection on past experiences and examples of using positionality in research will be especially important within this collection. While the proposal has been accepted by WAC Clearinghouse, publication will be contingent upon external reviewer feedback. Accepted authors will be expected to revise according to reviewer comments.

CHAPTER CONTENT

We are seeking proposals for chapters written in a first-person narrative and/or reflexive style, planned to be 2,000-3,000 words long. The focus should be on lived experience and positionalities rather than on literature reviews and/or theory-building. The following topics and questions are offered to indicate the kinds of storied practices we hope to cultivate.

Their Stories/Our Stories:

· When conducting research focused on other people’s stories, how do we (as researchers, participants, community members) successfully interweave or make space for our own stories?

· What are the ethical, political, professional, and personal implications of the decision to bring ourselves into conversation with the ostensible topics and/or communities of the research project?

Tensions of Objectivity:

· If all research (regardless of method/ology) is a story in which we are participants, what happens when researchers are trained to distance ourselves from the story and take a “disembodied view from nowhere” (Bordo, 1993)?

· What do we, as researchers, do with the tension between the desire for objectivity and the need for our embodied presence?

Teaching Positionality:

· How do we teach positionality?

· How do issues of positionality show up in publication, dissertation, conferences, and other academic sharing/gathering spaces?

Troubling Positionality:

· How might we extend, question, and otherwise trouble positionality as a central concept?

· How do we go beyond surface-level acknowledgements of positionality, privilege, and power (Walton, Moore, & Jones, 2016; García & Kirsch, 2022)?

Positionality as Action:

· How do we put positionality theory into practice?

· Can we break down existing infrastructures and subvert the status quo in ways that honor the value of diverse research approaches?

SOLICITATION AND REVIEW PROCESSES

We encourage contributions from diverse authors, including multiply-marginalized scholars, graduate students, contingent faculty, community organizers, and scholars who have chosen to leave academia for industry. Our process engages anti-racist reviewing practices as recommended by Cagle, et. al. (2021) and in the 2022 special issue of Writers: Craft & Context.

TIMELINE

· October 2, 2023: Proposal deadline

· November 6, 2023: Responses sent to all proposers

· March 15, 2024: Completed chapters due

· May 6, 2024: Preliminary review complete, chapters returned for revision

· July 8, 2024: Revised chapters due, manuscript proofread and compiled

· September 2, 2024: Final manuscript submitted to WAC for external review

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR CHAPTERS

Please submit your proposal (up to 500 words, not including citations) to the following email: positionality.stories.