Call for Papers – Global Narratives of Pandemic and Environment: Literature, History, and Culture

CFP

Global Narratives of Pandemic and Environment: Literature, History, and Culture

Zelia M. Bora, Animesh Roy, and Ricardo De la Fuente Ballesteros

Dear Professors,

One of the leading specialised publishing houses, Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), has accepted our proposal to write a global-contributed book volume, tentatively titled: Global Narratives of Pandemic and Environment: Literature, History, and Culture. The essays must be related to humanistic interdisciplinary studies on pandemics especially in Europe during 14^th and 15^th centuries with an emphasis on the displacement of communities’ cultures and the destruction natural habitat, as well as the marginalisation of the poor and minorities. The study of medieval letters, memoirs, chronicles, and mural paintings would be highly appreciated as these sources are important elements of evaluation to understand the representations of the social mechanisms of exclusion in European societies since the outbreak of the Bubonic pest in Medieval Societies, to the Cholera outbreak in Paris in 1832, and ending up with the social and historical effects of the Influenza after the First World War.

Concept Note

Contemporary theorisations on epidemics/pandemics as ‘natural’ events depoliticises epidemic response by obscuring the role played by humans in creating pathways for contagion. The history of humanity is marked by geographic shifts that have determined political, social, and economic relations between different peoples and cultures. The first narratives of pandemics in the West came from literary sources such as letters, memoirs, and chronicles and mural paintings. The first plague pandemic was named Justinian and references to it are found in Greek epitaphs of the fourth through the seventh century AD from the Byzantine provinces of Palestina Prima, Palestina Scunda, and PalestinaTercia (or Salutaris) and Arabia, former Romans’ colonies. Neither epidemics nor pandemics however prevented the emergence of Eurocentric capitalism established by the Roman Empire as a global power. Needless to mention, that this model of society further produced deep social inequalities in European soil during 14^th and 15^th centuries. Environmental displacements (in our context), war, pestilence, and famine caused epidemics (Mackenbach 1995). Romans as well as the subsequent colonial powers in the next centuries had in their political agenda territorial expansion and with it, the displacement of communities, cultures and the destruction of natural habitat (Harper 2017). Epidemics not only just exacerbated the marginalisation of the oppressed but also sigmatised them by naturalising their vulnerabilities to pathogens and associating their lives and living with contagion and crisis.   

Bringing together these perspectives from both humanities and social sciences, as well as drawing together interdisciplinary studies across literature, culture, history, medical anthropology, social epidemiology, political ecology, and human geography, we have the pleasure to invite you to write for a global contributed book volume entitled Global Narratives of Pandemic and Environment: Literature, History, and Culture.

Kindly keep in mind the following points while submitting your paper:

1. Papers should be between 5000 to 7000 words typed in A4 size pages.

2. The title of the paper should be in sentence case and centre alignment.

3. The main body of the essay should be in left alignment. Kindly do not justify.

4. Double spacing should be used between lines.

5. The Chicago Manual Style Handbook should be followed for references and citations.

6. Please do not use Foot Notes. Use End Notes instead.

7. Each paper must be accompanied by:

i. A declaration that it is an original work and has not been published elsewhere or is

    under consideration for publication.

ii. An abstract of the paper of around 500-600 words.

iii. A short biographical note about the contributor/s indicating name, institutional

     affiliation, brief career history, postal address, contact address (both personal and

     office) and e-mail id as a single attachment.

Mode of Submission:

Contributors are requested to send their abstracts with brief bio-notes as well as the finished papers to both roy.english82@gmail.com and zeliambora@gmail.com. Do note that while the deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15th March 2021, the deadline for the finished paper is 10th June 2021.

Selection Procedure:

Final selection of the papers will be made by the editors. Details about the selection of papers will be informed through e-mail. The editor reserve the right to make editing changes in the papers selected for publication for the sake of conceptual clarity and formatting, if needed. Please indicate “Global Narratives of Pandemic and Environment”in the subject line for all e-mail correspondences.

Important Dates:

Abstract submission: March 15^{th 2021} (along with a brief bionote of the author).

Submission of the final manuscript: June 10^th 2021.

Submission of revised manuscript: June 30^th 2021.

Editors

_{Zelia M. Bora (PhD) Portuguese and Brazilian Studies}

_{Professor at Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil (Graduate |Program Letters)}

_{Advisory Board to Ecocritical Theory and Practice –Lexington  (Rowman and Littlefield)}

_{E-mail: zeliambora@gmail.com}

_{Animesh Roy (Ph.D) in English Literature}

_{Assistant Professor of English}

_{St. Xavier’s College, Simdega, Jharkhand, India.}

_{E-mail: roy.english82@gmail.com}

_{Ricardo De la Fuente Ballesteros (Ph.D) in Philosophy and Letters}

_{Professor at University of Valladolid, Spain}

_{E-mail: ricardodelaf@hotmail.com}

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