Category: Call for Papers

CFP: Collection Stewardship in the Age of Finite Resources, Journal of Western Archives

The Journal of Western Archives (JWA) is seeking submissions for an upcoming special issue on the following topic: Collection stewardship in the age of finite resources.

Articles for this special issue could be on any of the following subjects:

  • Reappraisal    
  • Deaccessioning
  • Donor relations and managing their expectations
  • Changing collecting scopes and policies – from collecting anything to being more selective
  • Managing/reimagining collection space
  • Innovations in collections management

Types of works considered:

  • Research articles
  • Case studies
  • Work-in-progress articles

If you are interested in contributing to this special issue, please submit a draft through the JWA website at: digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/…. Submissions received before October 1st, 2023, will be considered for publication in this special issue, which will be published on the JWA website in early 2024.  If you have any questions, please contact JWA managing editor, Ryan Lee at ryan_lee@byu.edu.

Journal of Western Archives is a peer reviewed, open access, online journal, that gives archivists, manuscript curators, and graduate students in the American West a place to publish on topics of particular interest and relevance to them. To learn more about the journal and our policies and submission guidelines, please take a moment and visit the JWA website at: digitalcommons.usu.edu/westernarchives.

CFP: Oral History Network of Ireland Annual Conference 2023

The Oral History Network of Ireland (OHNI) is pleased to announce its 2023 conference on the theme of ‘Oral History: Power and Resistance’. At every stage of the process, oral history projects may be impacted by and engage with issues of power and resistance. Oral histories offer unique insights into the operations of power and resistance in our societies in the past and present. This is not confined to issues of political power and resistance but can include everything from power dynamics within personal relationships, to understanding minority-majority group experiences. Who exercises power, how it is used and how it can be leveraged are key questions for oral historians. Similarly, what is resistance, what forms it takes and how it may or may not effect social change are questions that have been explored with the assistance of oral histories. Power and resistance are also considerations at every level in the creation of an oral history – whose stories are told, how they’re told, the power (or lack thereof) exercised by interviewees and interviewers, and the purpose of oral history itself.

The conference will take place at Dooley’s Hotel, Waterford on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th June 2023.

We are delighted to welcome Graham Smith, Professor of Oral History at Newcastle University, as the keynote speaker. His research interests include public history and environmental oral history, with a particular focus on how people remember in groups, as well as the history of family and the history of medicine. He helped to establish the Oral History Unit and Collective at Newcastle in 2017. A long-time trade union activist, Graham is the joint editor of the Historians for History blog and the editor of the four-volume collection Oral History, published by Routledge in 2017 as part of their Critical Concepts in Historical Studies series.

Call for Papers

Conference contributions are welcome in a range of formats:

  • Standard conference papers (20 minutes)
  • 10-minute presentations for our ‘Moments’ panels, focusing on outstanding or memorable individuals, experiences, and/or incidents that influenced or changed the way the presenter practices oral history. Contributions showcasing new projects on the conference theme at an early stage of development are also welcome here.
  • Posters and visual presentations

We welcome proposals on any topic related to oral history, particularly those that take an imaginative approach to the conference theme of ‘Power and Resistance’. Potential topics could include (but are not limited to):

  • Power dynamics in the interview
  • Oral history and marginalised voices
  • Elite oral histories
  • Uncovering the operation of power in organisations and institutions
  • Abuses of power
  • Resistance and adaptation
  • Power, resistance and trauma
  • History from above and below
  • Power, resistance and the archive
  • Oral history and empowerment

To propose a paper, please submit an abstract (of not more than 250 words) along with your name, the name of your group, organisation or institution, and your email address to info@oralhistorynetworkireland.ie before Friday 28th April 2023. All proposals must demonstrate a clear engagement with oral history and/or personal testimony and we actively encourage the use of audio or video clips. The conference committee’s decision on successful abstracts will be communicated to potential presenters in May 2023. Information regarding registration for the conference will be posted in the coming weeks.

For further information, please see our website (https://oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/2023-conference) or the PDF of the call for papers (https://oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CFP2023.pdf). Questions may be directed to info@oralhistorynetworkireland.ie.  

CFP: Hip Hop Archives

At the age 50, Hip Hop is finally understood as an essential facet of world-wide culture, with wide-ranging influence on our shared world. The continued lack of hip hop documents in traditional archives indicates both a lack of interest in, or understanding of that impact, as well as the inherent ephemerality of the five pillars of hip hop, leaving interested archivists without a path for documentation.

Taking Mark V. Campbell’s assertion that archival presentations of hip hop “signal the continued importance of the culture’s fifth element: knowledge” which “indicate[s] an ‘archival state of mind’ with increased attentiveness to the preservation of hip-hop culture through lived, embodied and affective practices” pathways to documentation do exist, and can be replicated in traditional archival settings.

This special issue of the Journal of Archival Organization will focus on the efforts of creators, collectors, activists, scholars, archivists, and polymaths that can guide and inspire the collecting, study and celebration of hip hop in all of its forms. We welcome original research articles, review articles, and critical essays that examine the intersection of hip-hop and archives.

Call for Proposals: RAO Marketplace of IDEAs and Webinar Series

The Reference, Access, and Outreach Section (RAO) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) seeks proposals for the 2023 Spring/Summer IDEAS Webinar Series (April-July) and Annual Meeting Marketplace of IDEAs on Friday, July 14, 2023 @ 4pm EDT/3pm CDT/2pm MDT/1pm PDT.

Topics focused on the RAO sub-committee areas of Teaching with Primary Sources, Exhibits and Events, and Public Services Assessment are encouraged. Proposals addressing topics or themes related to the following will be prioritized: 

  • evolving the archival profession, public services, new ideas, fresh perspectives
  • orienting reference, access, and outreach efforts in a more Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, and Accessible way
  • collaborations/co-sponsorships with other Sections

Submission Due Dates:
    For Webinar proposals, please submit at least 4-5 weeks in advance of your preferred date(s), but no later than Friday, June 2, 2023
    For Marketplace of IDEAS proposals, please submit by Friday, June 2, 2023

Submission Form: forms.gle/kWnehC2ymVnvfLq46

Please send any questions to current RAO Chair, Jay-Marie Bravent,  jmbravent@uky.edu or any member of the Steering Committee. 

Call for Abstracts: Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Academic Libraries Creating Global Community:
Operating Outside of Traditional Roles and Spaces

To support our students and faculty as global citizens, academic libraries are increasingly engaging with broader community efforts to affect positive change. We want to hear about your approaches to addressing inequality, censorship, climate change, misinformation, low civic engagement, and other stressors that impact our students and the world. Examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Responses to censorship, anti-intellectualism, or misinformation
  • Collection development in coordination with public or school libraries
  • Community-inclusive service or events
  • Collaborations with non-profits or local businesses
  • Involvement in community sustainability or literacy projects 
  • Social justice collaborations 
  • Indigenous science collaborations
  • Efforts to foster civic engagement
  • Community development in special collections and archives
  • Expanding access to graduates and/or community members

The Humboldt Journal of Social Relations is a historic peer-reviewed, open-access, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to academic discussions of the major issues of our age. We are honored that the editorial board has chosen academic libraries as the topic of their 46th volume and we hope this volume will share our library efforts to outside audiences. We are accepting case studies, research articles, book reviews, and opinion pieces. Only case studies and research articles will be processed through peer review.

Send an abstract* of your proposed article to press@humboldt.edu. The abstract deadline is April 7, 2023. Abstracts should include::

  • Article title
  • Abstract 200-400 words
  • Author information:
    • Name
    • Title
    • Affiliation (ex. University name)
    • Email

If your abstract is accepted, the article deadline will be September 1, 2023. Word count for final article submissions are:

  • Case studies and research articles: 3,000-6,000 words
  • Book reviews: 500-2,000
  • Opinion pieces: 1000-3,000 words

ASA or APA citation styles are recommended.

*The abstracts are for our editorial team review only.

Call For Papers: Federal Writers’ Project

Call for papers – Proposed volume

Working through the Federal Writers’ Project: Labor, Place, Archive, and Representation

deadline for submissions: May 31, 2023

This proposed volume of interdisciplinary essays reexamines the New Deal era’s Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) as a labor project. We are working with a publisher to feature this book, Working through the Federal Writers’ Project: Labor, Place, Archive, and Representation, as part of a potential series on the FWP,  on the burgeoning field of FWP studies, and on how FWP studies fits in the larger framework of labor studies. Labor, in this sense, is not a narrow category. It encompasses trade unions, working conditions, labor power, political economy, and the everyday reality of working lives. Identification with labor enabled FWP writers to take a perspective on figures in a landscape that otherwise went unnoticed–men and women, some of them the formerly enslaved, working across industrial, agricultural, and domestic sectors. Instead of treating those figures as objects, many FWP writers promoted them as subjects, makers of democracy in a world threatened then, as now, by the rise of fascism. Many writers in the FWP exchanged revolutionary ideas about anti-racist and pro-labor struggles, creating a body of literature that depicts the diversity of American life while revealing the faultlines of U.S. racism and class division.

We invite examinations of the FWP archives and life histories housed at the Library of Congress as well as the American Guide Series and literary works by federal writers that consider these primary texts through the lens of labor. How did the FWP capture the voices of working people, both men and women? In what ways did the FWP provide emerging writers, including Black, female, and working-class writers, an opportunity to publish? In what ways did the FWP tacitly elicit stories of work that celebrated narratives of endurance and agency? How did the FWP and its writers navigate and/or embrace anti-racist and pro-labor struggles in the project? 

Finally, reexamining the FWP as a labor project suggests a parallel between the 1930s and our own moment, in which capitalists squeeze value from the precariously underemployed and overworked. The realities of unpaid/unrecognized labor, including dependent-care/family care and domestic work (either for hire or not), invites a consideration of future representations of work and worker’s lives, particularly given the renewed struggle for unionization and emerging multiracial class solidarity today. 

The editors invite proposals (200-400 word abstracts) for chapters in the range of 5000-7000 words from scholars of American studies, working-class studies, U.S. labor history, ethnic studies, composition studies, and any others that intersect with the study of the FWP. 

For a fuller description of the CFP, please see

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/02/06/working-through-the-federal-writers’-project-labor-place-archive-and-representation

Deadlines

  • for chapter proposals: May 31, 2023
  • for full chapter submission: September 15, 2023

Send queries and proposals to the co-editors Maureen Curtin and Michele Fazio at fwplabor@gmail.com

Call for Posts: Scholarly Communication and Libraries, Librarianship, and Information Sciences

Post by Dawn Durante, assistant editorial director of the University of North Carolina Press and member of the Feeding the Elephant Editorial Team

Feeding the Elephant is always looking for new content that sustains conversations about scholarly communications in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. We are all volunteers working to support dialogue within, between, and among the worlds of publishing, libraries, academic organizations, and academia, and we are particularly seeking perspectives and contributions from librarians and information science experts. We welcome queries from contributors at any career stage, from early career to the most professionally established people, and whether affiliated or independent.

General Topics

The forum is broadly interested in topics that college and university libraries face related to scholarly communications. In the past, the forum has featured pieces on library publishing and the relationship among the library, the academy, and scholarly communication, and has facilitated conversations between librarians and publishers. We welcome suggestions for any pertinent topics and are especially interested in publishing posts about the following:

  • Collection strategy
  • Accessibility/inclusivity of resources and spaces
  • Protecting user privacy while tracking OA and eBook usage
  • Information literacy in the age of disinformation
  • The role of faculty status/rank of librarians in career trajectory and engaging with faculty
  • Development and encouragement of OERs and other open resources
  • CC licenses and general copyright issues
  • Librarians and DH projects
  • Diversity and equity issues in academic libraries and institutions 
  • Digital preservation
  • Changing relationships between libraries and publishers related to open access

If you have a topic in mind that is not listed above, we would still love to hear from you about your ideas. Posts typically range from 800 to 1200 words, and we work with authors on flexible timelines. The Elephant editorial collective offers support and feedback on all pieces, and we are happy to collaborate on developing topics and ideas for posts with those interested in contributing but unsure what to write about..

Working with Your Librarian

Do you do work related to libraries and wish there was something that staff, faculty, or students knew about library resources related to their work and other scholarly communication? Pitch us a topic for our Working with Your Librarian series. 

Book Reviews

Feeding the Elephant is also looking for book reviewers to contribute book reviews related to publishing, information sciences, data, and librarianship. Currently, we are particularly interested in volunteers with relevant expertise to review these books:

If you are interested in reviewing a book, podcast, documentary, or other cultural production not on this list, we welcome suggestions!

Have something to say on this topic? Reply to this post! Or email the Elephant about writing for us. We welcome submissions from stakeholders on all sides of scholarly publishing. Find us on Twitter @HNetBookChannel and use the hashtag #FeedingTheElephant. You can also find us on Mastodon at @FeedingTheElephant@h-net.social.

CFP: CLIR Events

The Council on Library and Information Resources is pleased to announce that we have opened Calls for Proposals for our conferences happening in person in St. Louis, MO this November: the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Forum and Learn@DLF and NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2023: Communities of Time and Place.

For all events, we encourage proposals from members and non-members; regulars and newcomers; digital library practitioners from all sectors (higher education, museums and cultural heritage, public libraries, archives, etc.) and those in adjacent fields such as institutional research and educational technology; and students, early- and mid-career professionals and senior staff alike. We especially welcome proposals from individuals who bring diverse professional and life experiences to the conference, including those from underrepresented or historically excluded racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds, immigrants, veterans, those with disabilities, and people of all sexual orientations or gender identities.

Our events will take place in person on the following dates:


Learn more about our events and session options on the DLF Blog.

The deadline for all opportunities is Monday, May 1, at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

View the Calls for Proposals and submit:


Submit for one conference or multiple (though, different proposals for each, please).

Please note: All sessions for the 2023 DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, and NDSA’s Digital Preservation will take place in person.

If you have any questions, please write to us at forum@diglib.org. We’re looking forward to seeing you in St. Louis this fall.

-Gayle and Team DLF

P.S. Want to stay updated on all things #DLFforum? Subscribe to our Forum newsletter and follow us at @CLIRDLF on Twitter.

CFP: SEAA/SGA Virtual Summer Symposium

SEAA/SGA Virtual Summer Symposium:  

Navigating the Pitfalls and Possibilities of Contested Collections 

June 23, 2023 

Call for Proposals 

The Southeastern Archives Association and the Society of Georgia Archives are pleased to share a call for proposals for a virtual summer symposium to be held June 23, 2023. The theme is Navigating the Pitfalls and Possibilities of Contested Collections. The program committee invites proposals for presentations that focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with working with collections that document violence and oppression and resistance to that oppression. Potential topics include: 

  • Considerations when acquiring and managing collections that are at risk of political scrutiny and that may be impacted by current legislation 
  • Responding to legislative threats to collections in your repository 
  • Teaching with primary sources–how to approach using collections that document violence, oppression, and resistance, and other sensitive topics in instruction 
  • Outreach and reference for collections that document violence, oppression, and resistance  
  • Practical and ethical considerations for digitization and for collecting born-digital records 
  • Self-care for archivists and students when working with challenging collections 

Tell us a story, but also tell us what you learned. What advice would you give to someone else in the same position? The committee welcomes proposals from anyone involved with archives, including archival staff, new professionals, students, and allied professionals. We encourage potential presenters to consider how their proposed session will support the SGA Statement on Diversity and Inclusion. 

The following types of virtual presentations will be considered: 

  • 15 minute presentation (a single presentation by one or more individuals, which the committee will assemble into panels) 
  • 45 minute panel (individual or group presentation that may include a roundtable discussion, interactive discussion, or traditional presentation; OR a complete panel with 3 separate individual presentations) 
  • 5-10 minute lightning talk 

Proposals can be submitted through the online submission form. The deadline for proposal submissions is March 31, 2023. 

CFP: Association for Gravestone Studies 45th Annual Conference

The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was founded in 1977 for the purpose of furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. AGS is an international organization with an interest in gravemarkers of all periods and styles as well as the larger cemetery as a cultural landscape. Through its publications, conferences, workshops and exhibits, AGS promotes the study of gravestones and cemeteries from historical and artistic perspectives, expands public awareness of the significance of historic gravemarkers, and encourages individuals and groups to record and preserve gravestones and historic cemeteries.  

The annual conference, to be held in person June 20-25, 2023 in Denver, Colorado at the University of Denver, features lectures, guided cemetery tours, paper sessions, roundtables, exhibits, classes, and documentation and conservation workshops.  The Association for Gravestone Studies welcomes proposals from graduate students, emerging and independent scholars, as well as established scholars and members of the Association.  Presenters are strongly encouraged to use images in their talks.  The AGS conference audience is a diverse mix of academics and members of various professions.  Scholars come from the fields of history, archaeology, cultural studies, archives, historic preservation, cultural resources management, art history, material culture, anthropology, and art.  Professionals include conservators, cemetery directors, monument company personnel, and historic site managers.  The call for papers is available on the AGS website at https://www.gravestonestudies.org/conferences/2023-conference.

We are accepting applications for general paper and workshop proposals through April 1, 2023 at AGSConfProposals@gmail.com.  All paper presentations visuals should be formatted as PowerPoint-compatible projection files.

Applications are open until April 15, 2023 for the Slater Scholarship and Stockton Scholarship – both of which are for students to present their research during the conference. Application Here.

Contact Info: 

Perky Beisel, AGS Vice President and 2023 Conference Co-Organizer, professor of History, Stephen F. Austin State University, pbeisel@sfasu.edu 

Contact Email: pbeisel@sfasu.edu

URL: https://www.gravestonestudies.org/conferences/2023-conference