CALL FOR PAPERS
2022 Special Issue on Race
2022 issue theme:
Critical Race Theory
The Critical Race Theory Collective (CRTc) serving as the Editorial Team for Education for Information’s (EFI) second annual special issue on Race in Information Studies openly seeks scholarly contributions for the 2022 edition. The 2022 theme is Critical Race Theory (CRT). The 2022 EFI Special Edition on Race will be FREE ACCESS. The entire CRT edition will be freely accessible and downloadable.
In the United States since June of 2021, there has been an exponentially increasing villainization of CRT as part of a larger conservative socio-political discourse to regress the current racial awakening in the US and globally. According to the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, socially and politically conservative media outlet, Fox News, from June 2021 through June 2022 mentioned CRT in negative contexts more than 1900 times. A majority of Fox News’ anti-CRT mentions occurred in the aftermath of the then serving 45th US President’s Executive Order (13950) banning diversity training for US federal agencies and contractors in September 2021.
As explained by the Brookings Institute, CRT has been used as a dog whistle and within propaganda branding for a broader agenda. Be it to resist and diminish: anti-racism education/curriculum (both professional and scholastic); counters and remedies to structural racism; initiatives and legislation for criminal justice reform; or serving as a rallying cry for conservative momentum building heading into the US 2022 midterm elections.
The tactics of US right-wing politicians have also been adopted in Australia. In June 2021, a motion passed the Australian senate to “reject Critical Race Theory from the national curriculum”, this despite the fact that CRT is not actually taught in Australian schools. Indigenous theorists and Australian scholars have suggested that this points to both a lack of understanding of what CRT is, or a direct effort by conservatives to undermine attempts to address systemic racism.
A similar political context is at play in the United Kingdom. In October 2020, UK minister for Women and Equalities stated in a parliamentary debate in Black History Month that “this government stands unequivocally against Critical Race Theory ”, denouncing CRT as a “dangerous ideology” of “black victimhood” which needs to be removed from educational spaces. More recently, the same Conservative cabinet minister’s leaked WhatsApp messages reveal a callous disavowal of UK Colonialism and an attack on Kimberlé Crenshaw. These influential views reinforce the impact of the UK government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report (March 2021), which denies the existence of institutional racism.
In part this call is the CRTC’s response to these contexts. Yet, more substantively, this edition will be grounded in the CRT legacy of scholarship and activism first started in the mid-1980s by founding scholars who moved beyond the limitations within their relationship with Critical Legal Scholars (the crits) in the1970s and early 1980s to address racial disparities and inequities within the US criminal justice system. The initial CRT pioneers include Regina Austin, Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Charles Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia Williams. The EFI 2022 CRT Special Issue will build upon the almost forty-year legacy of Critical Race Theory, which has broadened beyond its original discipline of Law to establish discourses within Education, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, History, Queer Studies, Philosophy, Social Work, Sociology, and yes, Information Studies. In spanning across five decades CRT has grown in its capacity to address structural racism and white privilege at the macro, meso, and micro levels of society. The content within this issue will respect as well as further develop the legacy of CRT and its founders within Information Studies contexts.
Thus, the CRTcollective is profoundly interested in work from, scholars, educators, information professionals, community organizers/leaders, graduate students along with critical race theory activists who are able to utilize CRT frameworks applied to an aspect of the Information Studies discourse. Those who work interdisciplinarily are highly encouraged to contribute as well. The CRTC is also actively soliciting an international information studies perspective on race and the use of CRT.
Types of Submissions / CRT Themes
Original Research on subjects such as (but not limited to):
- Ability Justice (through the CRT lens and IS context)
- Citation analysis
- Collection Development
- In Libraries
- In Archives
- Critical Cataloging
- Decolonial Approaches (through a CRT lens and IS context)
- Digital Divide
- Historical Essays
- Possible IS “Hidden Figures” from CRT point-of-view
- Untold narratives
- Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Identity development
- Personal Identities
- Community based Identities
- Organizational Identities
- Indigenous Methodologies
- Information Access
- Information Activism/Organizing
- Information and the Racial Wealth Gap
- Information and Society
- Information Policy
- Information Technology
- Surveillance
- Database use and configuration
- Racialization on the Internet
- LIS program (iSchool) Critiques
- Programmatic Ideas
- Curriculum
- Leadership Analysis
- Misinformation (through a CRT lens and IS context)
- New concepts that rigorously build and expand upon current CRT frameworks
- Pedagogical perspectives, from educators and/or students point-of-view
- Curriculum Development
- Equity in Leadership
- Knowledge Justice
- Power Mapping (through a CRT lens and IS context)
- Professional Hiring Practices
- Publishing & Scholarly Communications
- Violence in Information Environments
Established CRT Frameworks (an abbreviated list among many additional options):
- Black Feminist (Womanist) thought
- Counterstories and Platicas
- Critical Analysis of White Privilege
- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Identifying and Assessing Microaggressions/Macroaggressions
- Intersectionality
- Interest Convergence
- LatCrit
- Racial Battle Fatigue
- Restorative Justice (through a CRT lens and IS context)
- TribalCrit
Submissions should include the following:
- The author’s full name, affiliation, address, and email address. Note:submissions will be blind peer-reviewed, hence, authors should include two versions/files. On one of the versions please remove all identification information from the manuscript.
- Between 3 and 6 keywords to represent the themes or topics in the paper.
- Final Papers/Features should be between 5,000-8000 words, including notes. references, and appendices.
- Commentaries: Shorter essays, think pieces, or general commentary on topical issues, controversies and emerging questions for the field within a CRT context should be 750–1500 words including references and will be reviewed by the editorial staff.
- Both Features and Commentaries are required to be formatted based on Education for Information’s Author Guidelines.
The general timetable:
All dates 2022:
- March 15th (EOD PST): Deadline for 1st submissions
- May 23rd (EOD PST): Notification of acceptance
- July 25th (EOD PST): deadline for final submissions/Revisions (if needed)
- August 15th: final drafts submitted to EFI Managing Editor
- September: Fall release of CRT Special Edition
Questions/Comments/Inquiries
Questions, comments, and inquiries can be directed to: EFI4CRT@gmail.com
If potential submitters would like a brief consultation regarding your paper idea with one of the editors, the CRTcollective Admin Team can assist those seeking to connect with an editor. Send request to: EFI4CRT@gmail.com
About the journal
Founded in 1983, Education for information (EFI) is a quarterly refereed academic journal publishing research articles on issues related to teaching and learning of information scientists and professionals for an information society. EFI welcomes a broad perspective on issues related to pedagogy and learning in the information and communication disciplines (ICD) such as Library and Information Science, Communication and Media studies, Journalism, Archival studies, Museum studies, Psychology, Cognitive science, and Digital Humanities.