Journal of Electronic Publishing 
CfP: Special Issue on Publishing and Climate Justice

Abstract submission deadline: 30 April 2024

Over the last two decades publications, journals, and book series focused on climate research and the environmental humanities, and on topics ranging from the anthropocene to ecocriticism, have seen a surge in popularity in academic publishing. This mirrors the growth in conducted research reflecting on the current climate emergency and responding to policy efforts such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Das et al. 2021; Jørgensen and Ginn 2020; Haunschild, Bornmann, and Marx 2016; Santos and Bakhshoodeh 2021). Academic publishers have played a crucial role in ensuring trusted climate research reaches the widest possible audiences and can contribute to future policy development. The related importance of open access publishing is increasingly recognised, as rapid distribution of and frictionless access to climate research can be seen as an important contribution to climate justice (Singh 2022).

Yet the above notwithstanding, has the publishing industry as a whole really reflected on its own complicity in the climate emergency and on the long-term sustainability of its knowledge production and distribution practices? What is and has been the role of publishers and other institutions of knowledge production in reproducing the global climate crisis? This also relates to the literature on knowledge production that is critical of academic capitalism and neoliberalism, which tends to foreground issues of justice, equity, and academic labour, but ‘rarely engages directly with climate justice or the value or the exploitation of non-humans’ (Bacevic 2021).

Paper waste and polluting ink, transport emissions from shipping copies of books and journals over the world, are all key examples of unsustainable environmental practices connected to print publishing, where the industry has only started to address the negative environmental impact or footprint of digital publishing and archiving (Baillot 2023). The theme of 2022’s open access week was “Open for Climate Justice”, and we have seen many climate pledges from publishers ‘going green’, commitments to climate action, and/or organisational adoptions of environmental policies, from carbon accounting and reducing carbon or greenhouse gas emissions, to a completely carbon-neutral production system. Yet at the same time we have seen various accusations of greenwashing within the industry–especially by commercial publishers and large publishing conglomerates–with publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis heavily entangled with fossil fuel companies and hence being seen as responsible for ‘perpetuating and enabling a fossil fuel economy’ (Westevelt 2022; Dahl 2022).

Moving away from organisational pledges, the question is whether climate justice in academic publishing does not demand from us to ask bigger questions about the industry as a whole (and related to that the way knowledge production in academia is set up). Especially also in relation to issues of overproduction in research and publishing, which is directly connected to profit targets in the industry and academia’s reliance on quantitative performance metrics following the adage ‘to publish or perish’. This has led amongst others to calls for slow science (Stengers 2017), digital sobriety (being frugal of one’s use of digital technologies), and less resource-intensive approaches to (digital) text (Baillot 2023). But it might also involve considerations on how corporate consolidation and ongoing competition in academic publishing could be standing in the way of concerted action. What is the role and responsibility of the publishing industry in tackling climate change? Publishing organisations and collectives are signing up for initiatives, pledges, and manifestoes such as the UN SDG Publishers Compact a joint initiative of the UN and the International Publishers Association (IPA), Publishing Declares, or the Climate Change Knowledge Cooperative, and although these kinds of green values and practices are commendable and can reflect an organisation’s commitment to decarbonization, it could be argued that this is not sufficient for a transition to a low-carbon economy if it is not accompanied by a pledge that ‘academic knowledge production becomes detached from the commitment to profit that ensures carbon emissions continue to rise’ (Bacevic 2021).

This special issue invites abstracts for papers of ~6,000-8,000 words reflecting on these issues as well as examples of best (and worst) practices of how publishers (and the industry as a whole) are tackling the current climate and ecological crises, alongside theoretical contributions on publishing’s entanglement with the climate crisis, the Anthropocene, and global capitalism.

Potential topics:

• The question of knowledge production and its role in the climate crisis
• The environmental footprint of digital publication and digital archiving
• Connections and collaborations among the climate movement and the international (open) publishing community
• Calls for slow science and digital sobriety
• Greenwashing in the publishing industry
• The publishing industry’s transition to post-carbon futures
• The publishing industry’s extraction, use, and disposing of natural resources
• The environmental impact of emerging knowledge production technologies and practices (e.g. “heavy” media types, archival standards, LLMs + generative AI, etc).
• Knowledge systems, material infrastructures and the Anthropocene
• Publishing Traditional an Indigenous Knowledge perspectives on climate change
• Environmental implications of established publishing and research workflows and potential improvements to this
• Ecocatastrophes and academic publishing
• Interdisciplinarity and non-traditional formats in the face of the current climate emergency

When submitting an abstract, please also include a note that your abstract is for consideration in the Publishing and Climate Justice special issue. Abstract submissions are due on 30 April 2024 and should be addressed to the special issue editor Janneke Adema via jep.editors@gmail.com.

Full papers of accepted abstracts will be due by 15 September 2024.

Please direct any questions to JEP co-editor Janneke Adema via jep.editors@gmail.com.

The Call for Proposals for the 2024 Digital Pedagogy Institute (DPI) is now open. At this year’s DPI, our goal is to create a virtual space that allows participants to explore diverse approaches to digital pedagogy from a variety of perspectives, including those of undergraduate/graduate students, faculty, librarians, educational developers, and technologists.

Our streams for this year’s conference include:

1. Critical Ideologies and Digital Pedagogy: How do we question and challenge dominant beliefs and practices in the field of Digital Pedagogy? What underlying approaches and questions should we engage with more deeply? How can our pedagogical practices help support new educational priorities and social change?
2. Digital (de)colonialism: How have digital pedagogy techniques and tools helped instructors and students address anti-racist and decolonization practices in their curriculum and research? What are the challenges and opportunities? Do you have any best practices to share?
3. Inclusivity, Accessibility, and Digital Pedagogy: Issues related to inclusivity and accessibility are at the forefront of Digital Pedagogy. What barriers have you encountered in your research and practice? How have you resolved them? What barriers remain? This is an opportunity to reflect on and share frameworks and best practices that have helped to reduce pedagogical barriers and integrate digital pedagogy approaches.
4. Sustainability, Renewability, and Environmental Costs in the digital sphere: Digital pedagogy is not immune to environmental critique. There are environmental impacts associated with generating the power and equipment needed to support digital initiatives. How should we reconcile the benefits of digital pedagogy with its environmental costs? Can digital pedagogy proponents be good environmental stewards?
5. Digital Pedagogy and the Post-Truth society: It is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate what is real and what is true. How can Digital Pedagogy help instructors and students to navigate issues related to digital literacy, data ethics, artificial intelligence, social media influences, etc.
6. Digital Pedagogy and Emerging Technologies: This new stream delves into the dynamic intersection of digital pedagogy and emerging technologies in higher education. It focuses on how digital tools and innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and immersive technologies (virtual reality, augmented reality, etc.) are reshaping teaching and learning experiences. The discussions will cover strategies for integrating these technologies into academic curricula, impacts and implications, and challenges of ensuring equitable access and ethical use.
7. Formats

Presentations – 20 minute synchronous sessions presenting papers or presentations on projects, initiatives, and/or case studies related to one of the conference streams, with time for Q&A.

Tool demos/workshops – 30 minute or 60 minute interactive demonstrations of innovative or new tools that you have integrated or are thinking of integrating into your teaching.

Important Dates

Please fill out the CFP form by April 19th, 2024: https://forms.gle/hZBjF7hrcj3FYRQB7

Questions?

Please contact Steering Committee Co-Chairs, Paulina Rousseau, at  paulina.rousseau@utoronto.ca, or Timothy Ireland, at tireland@uwaterloo.ca, or Cheryl Lepard, head of CfP committee at cheryl.lepard@utoronto.ca should you have any questions.

Registration: Please stay tuned for registration information via the website and email.

Greetings,

I am organizing a special session for the MLA Convention to be held in New Orleans from 9th to 12th January 2025. Please share and apply to my CFP. The CFP titled “Prompt Engineering as Rhetoric, Literary Criticism, and Creative Writing” invites submissions that engage with how the deliberate design of prompts can serve as a critical and creative intervention in reconfiguring the relationship between AI and humans. Submit your abstract (250 words) and a short bio by Sunday, 10 March, to jongkeyong.kim@tcu.edu. If you have a link to your ChatGPT or Bing conversation or digital products that illustrate your proposal, please include the link in the abstract. To access my CFP posted on the official MLA site, click here.

By framing prompt engineering within the contexts of rhetoric (the art of persuasion), literary criticism (the study of literature and its interpretation), and creative writing (the art of creating original compositions), the session aims to delve into the nuanced ways in which language and AI interact. Rhetorically, prompt engineering can be seen as a form of persuasion where the prompter intends to influence the AI’s “response” in a specific direction. From a literary criticism perspective, it might involve analyzing how different prompts can lead to varied interpretations or creations by the AI, akin to different readings of a text. In creative writing, prompt engineering could be about using prompts as a starting point for generating innovative and artistic content. This CFP is an invitation to critically and creatively engage with AI, exploring how thoughtfully designed prompts can reshape our interaction with technology, opening new avenues for artistic and intellectual exploration.

To read about the MLA presidential theme Visibility, click here. All panelists will need to be members of the MLA by April 7th to be accepted.

Much appreciated,

Jong-Keyong

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