Can anyone make sense of
this?
what are "the narratives of"?
What is "embodied intersectionality"?
What is the "regulatory discursive power"?
What is "subjecthood"?
What is "inner sense of self"?
Why is racism an "affective ‘postcolonial disjuncture’"?
What are "transnational diasporic spaces"?
How can "gendered and raced representation" be "powerfully written on" a "body" unless you are doing a Laurie Penny and biroing poems on your forearms?
part of a major defining annual lecture not a one-off study group
followed by drinks reception anyway - LOL!
How to write a call for papers just like a bona fide pompous academic
Step 1: Start a journal, preferably something
electronic. Humanities academics are afraid of computers, and anything that's published online seems edgy and dangerous. Capitalize on their dismay by giving your ejournal a hip name with almost zero relevance to your chosen field like
Sputnik (postmodern),
Ellipsis (poetics), or
Bloom (literary theory). Bonus points for choosing a title that's impossible to pronounce, like
Wor(l)d-Smith-leery or
Te*t. Get funding for your journal from a university body, even if it is only peanuts. It's important to be affiliate yourself with the higher ups. That always looks good on a CFP.
Step 2: Write a pretentious defense of your journal, involving a number of Latinisms and double negatives. For example:
"
Saffron is a *new* electronic journal devised and disseminated by the department of comparative literature at the University of Ingersoll. Saffron is a spice of colour, the spice of life that permeates all substances it touches. The idea for our ejournal is not dissimilar; we seek to examine the idea of staining, of remainder and of transformation. The draw to saffron is that it is a precious and limited substance; it is not insignificant that the sexual organs of the crocus plant from which it is derived suggest a kind of renewal."
Step 3: Create an even more pretentious subject for the focus of your initial issue. Your issue theme should be somewhat related to your journal's ostensible focus, but it is imperative that the title of the issue be as obfuscated as possible. Use a colon.
For example:
Saffron, Issue 1: "At the Heart of the Matter: Penetrating Loci"
Your CFP should also explain the focus of the issue. Here is where you stick lists of opposing terms and words that have little or no relevance to what you're actually interested in. Be creative! This is your place to demonstrate your word-smithery, your word-craft, the artisanlike qualities of verbosity with which you charm, implicate and (wo)manipulate your audience(s) and (de)monstrate your "smartyness." Equivocation is not only suggested but required.
Suggested buzz words:
- Reformulate
- Discourse/dialogue
- Launching
- Liminal
- Ideology
- Authority/authorize/author-ize
- Represent/Re-present
Don't be intimidated if you don't know what any of these words mean: nobody else does either.
Step 4: Add generic categories that allow anyone to submit anything for consideration. You don't want anybody to feel left out, do you? Here's a good sample list:
- Medieval
- Renaissance
- Postcolonialism
- Writing Centers
- Feminism
- Folklore
- Non-dramatic
- Composition
- Victorian
- Gender Studies
- Rhetoric
- Marxism
- Dramatic
- Narrative
- Queer Studies
- Pedagogy
- Children
- Psychoanalytic
- Multimedia
- Deconstruction
- Literature
- (Sub)Culture
- Anything else ever written or thought by humans, or, to be on the safe side, by any higher-order mammal.
Step 5: Make an insincere declaration to your readers promising impartiality in paper selection and quality in the editorial process. Nobody will believe you, but it is a nice touch anyway.
Step 6: Leave an email address for submissions and a deadline date. Then just sit back, pour yourself a whiskey sour and wait for the proposals to start flowing in.
http://philoillogica.typepad.com/philoillogica/2004/11/how_to_write_a_.html
