For its twenty-fourth issue, InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture invites scholarly articles and creative works that explore the concept of vulnerability.
Almost two weeks after Thomas Eric Duncan’s plane landed in Dallas from Liberia in late September, the Centers for Disease Control announced the first case of Ebola in the United States. News feeds immediately jumped at the report, the Dow Jones plunged 266 points and petitions to ban flights from Ebola-stricken countries have since been circulating across social media platforms. From ISIS to the crisis in Ukraine to employment security, the media’s pronouncement of threats posed by vulnerabilities (and certain invisibilities) are ubiquitous. It is worth considering, however, what the stakes are in maintaining such rhetoric, and whether it is possible to imagine alternatives. As urgency slips into a normative state of being, for Issue 24, we would like contributors to explore the various meanings of vulnerability. Are there critical practices which uniquely encourage or discourage vulnerability? Can we imagine vulnerability as a position of power? How does visual culture hold accountable social or political processes that produce states of precarity? What are the stakes in protecting technological vulnerabilities? How does the diffusion of images enable personal and social vulnerabilities?
- Vulnerability in artistic or scholarly production
- Labor, shelter, healthcare, and economic precarities
- Biological, affective, and political contagion
- Climate change and the environment
- International trade and policy agreements
- Network and technological vulnerabilities
- Sharing and distribution of personal information
- Political transparency
- States of emergency, endangerment, crisis, war, and risk
Please send inquiries and completed papers (with references following the guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style) of between 4,000 and 10,000 words to ivc.rochester@gmail.com by March 20th, 2015.
Creative/Artistic Works
In addition to written materials, InVisible Culture is accepting work in other media (video, photography, drawing, code) that reflect upon the theme as it is outlined above. For questions or more details concerning acceptable formats, go to http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/contribute or contact ivc.rochester@gmail.com.
Reviews
InVisible Culture is also currently seeking submissions for book, exhibition, and film reviews (600-1,000 words). To submit a review proposal, go to http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/contribute or contact ivc.rochester@gmail.com.
Blog
The journal also invites submissions to its blog feature, which will accommodate more immediate responses to the topic of the current issue. For further details, please contact us at ivc.rochester@gmail.com with the subject heading “blog submission.”