As co-editors of this special issue, we (Adrienne Jankens, Elena Garcia, Joyce Meier, and Chris Susak) we are crafting this Fall 2026 special issue of Community Literacy Journal to highlight work from the 2025 Conference on Community Writing in Detroit, MI. Following the conference theme, “Designing Justice Across Space, Place, and Time,” this special issue emphasizes work on designing justice in community literacy work. Specifically, this special issue aims to include work that ties to either the Design Justice Network Principles or to conference topics emerging in conversation with those principles. Community organizers, activists, students, and faculty working on community literacy projects who present at CCW 2025 are welcome to submit. Co-authored and collaborative submissions are especially encouraged.
To allow for projects presented at the conference to be developed further for publication, submissions may fit in the following categories typically included in CLJ:
- Articles (15-20 double-spaced pages): Submissions to this section will include scholarship on and discussions about issues in community literacy, in the form of case studies, qualitative and/or quantitative research, conceptual articles, etc.
- Community Literacy Projects and Program Profiles (8-12 double-spaced pages): Submissions to this section will discuss innovative and impactful community-based projects and programs that are grounded in best practices and ideally showcase some assessment of impact. Profiles should draw on community literacy scholarship, but they are not expected to have the extended lit reviews that are customary in the articles section of the journal. Additionally, submissions for this section should showcase elements of purposeful design, structure, sustainability mechanisms, and/or infrastructure that support social justice aims. We encourage community-based practitioners and non-profit staff to submit for this section.
- Issues in Community Literacy (8-12 double-spaced pages): Submissions to this section will offer targeted analysis, reflection, and/or complication of ongoing challenges associated with the work of community literacy. Potential subjects for this section include (but are not limited to) building/sustaining infrastructure, navigating institutional constraints, pursuing community literacy in graduate school, working with vulnerable populations, building ethical relationships, realizing reciprocity, and negotiating conflicts among partners. We imagine this as a space for practitioners to raise critical issues or offer a response to an issue raised in a previous volume of the CLJ.
Proposals of 250-500 words are due to special issue editors by November 1, 2025. Please submit proposals and other inquiries to Adrienne Jankens at dx1044.
The full call for proposals and timeline for the special issue can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1seCc_uQlh8V1fbP4qkDu0PQf8S4zcHtC/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110693784282875550014&rtpof=true&sd=true
Adrienne Jankens, Ph.D. (she/her)
Director of Composition and Assistant Professor, Rhetoric and Writing Studies
English Department
Wayne State University