Call for Papers
dePICTions volume 3
Critical Ecologies
Curating Editor: Carlo Salzani
Ecology (at least as we have known it for the past half-century) is in a paradoxical state of permanent crisis, to the point that we can hardly evoke one term without adding the other. Equated to ecological crisis and seen as a problem in constant search of solutions, it has acquired highly dystopian traits, looming all too easily over our future as the menace of an ecological catastrophe. And even on a less alarmist level, the old ecological paradigm centered on stability and prediction has been replaced by a much more fluid and dramatic understanding of ecosystems and change.
The critical state of ecology makes it one of the most significant challenges we face today. Moreover, the ecological crisis inevitably intersects with other social, political, and philosophical concerns of central importance, ranging from environmental justice to colonial dispossession, from climate migration to urban ecologies, which all call for a transdisciplinary and critical approach. While critical thinking and the quest for sustainability certainly converge in a critique of domination in its many forms, critical thinking must also be called upon to question the quest’s many, still-too-anthropocentric drifts.
dePICTions volume 3: Critical Ecologies calls for contributions that tackle these issues in one of their myriad aspects and geographical configurations. While we are principally interested in perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, we are also open to texts from other academic traditions (provided that our pool of reviewers enables a fair assessment).
We are looking for articles (3500-5000 words) by authors who understand themselves as “public intellectuals.” As such, articles should (a) reflect the current state of research, (b) have a distinct, critical point of view, and (c) present the issues in a way that is accessible not just to academics, but also to a broader public audience interested in critical thinking. dePICTions features unsolicited articles as well as articles written by special invitation.
We further accept book reviews (max. 1000 words) and interviews (open word count) that relate to the volume’s theme. Reviews of older books are welcome as long as they (a) are original and previously unpublished, (b) take the volume’s historical context under consideration, and (c) contribute a critical and contemporary view to the debate.
Submission deadline: 31 December 2022
Publication date: Spring 2023
Queries and submissions: depictions@parisinstitute.org
All submissions should include (in this order):
- Title
- Full name(s) of the author(s)
- Abstract (max. 100 words)
- Biographical note (max. 50 words)
- E-mail address (this will be published; if you would like to use a different address for correspondence with the editors, please indicate this.)
- Text (formatted according to the stylesheet)
- Text should be single-spaced and unjustified.
- Fonts should be standard (Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.), font size 12pt.
- Files should be submitted in *.doc or *.docx formats.
- Please do not use automatically formatted headings, spaces before or after text, or indents (apart from block quotes).
- Paragraphs should be separated by a single blank line.
- Main and section titles should be bold.
- In the main and section titles, please capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Please do not capitalize prepositions (if shorter than 6 letters), articles, and conjunctions.
- Italics should only be used for non-English words and the titles of stand-alone works (books, films, etc.).
- Please distinguish between hyphen ( – to separate parts of a word and between numbers) and em dash ( — to separate parts of a sentence, with no space on either side).
- Acronyms should be written in all caps, whether spoken as letters (e.g., USA) or words (e.g., COVID).
- Please do not use the possessive “s” after a word ending in “s” (e.g., do not use Dennis’s; use Dennis’ instead).
- Please capitalize conceptual usages of regular vocabulary (e.g., “West” and “Western” to refer to a cultural concept rather than a compass direction).
- Please use the serial comma (e.g., “Jane, John, and Jake went to the supermarket.”).
- Direct quotes should be placed in double quotation marks. Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes.
- Unless they are part of the original quotation, please place colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation marks outside quotation marks. In contrast, commas and periods should be inside quotation marks whether part of the original or added by the quoting author.
- Quotes that are longer than 3 lines should be formatted as block quotes and indented 1 cm from the left.
- Any additions to or omissions from a quote should be marked by square brackets, e.g., “[…]”.
- Double quotation marks may be used as scare quotes to emphasize a word, but this should be done sparingly.
- All bibliographical information should be included in endnotes that follow direct or indirect quotations.
- Endnotes should come after all punctuation except the dash; they should also come after, not inside, quotation marks.
- Please use automatically generated endnotes with Arabic numerals.
- When formatting bibliographical references, please do not use an automated reference system but follow the guidelines below.
- For repeated references to the same text, use a short form (last name of author, abbreviated title [max. first three words], page number; e.g., “Streeck, Buying Time, 35.”).
- Please do not include two-letter US state abbreviations (e.g., Stanford, CA or Cambridge, MA) in references.
- Please do not use “ibid.”, “f.”, or “ff.”.
- Explanatory endnotes should be used sparingly.
Monographs
- First Name Surname, Title: Subtitle, translated by First Name Surname, edition, Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication, page.
- Example: Wolfgang Streeck, Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, translated by Patrick Camiller, New York: Verso, 2014, 7-8.
Chapters in edited volumes
- First Name Surname, “Chapter Title: Subtitle,” in First Name Surname/First Name Surname (eds.), Title: Subtitle, Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication, page range of chapter, here precise page from which quotation is taken.
- Example: Carlo Salzani, “Walter Benjamin,” in Adam Kotsko and Carlo Salzani (eds.), Agamben’s Philosophical Lineage, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, 27-38, here 35.
Journal articles
- First Name Surname, “Article Title: Subtitle,” Journal Title, volume.issue (year), page range of article, here precise page from which quotation is taken.
- If a doi (digital object identifier) is needed, please add after a comma at the end.
- Example: Julia Kristeva, “Stabat Mater,” Poetics Today, 6.1/2 (1985), 133–152, here 134.
Websites
- First Name Surname or Name of Webpage, “Title: Subtitle,” Name of Webpage, date of publication or last update, at URL [access date].
- Adapt this sample based on the information available, but always include the name of the webpage, URL, and access date.
- Example: Ross Douthat, “Is the Religious Right Privileged?,” The New York Times, 18 June 2019, at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/opinion/religion-race-liberalism.html [26 June 2019].
Engineering, medicine, applied sciences
- Alternative citation guidelines for articles in engineering, medicine, the applied sciences, and similar fields are accepted (e.g., listing of multiple author names).
- Interviews should be preceded by a brief introductory text; no abstract is necessary.
- The first question and answer should be preceded by the full names of interviewer and interviewee; thereafter, initials are used (e.g., “Jane Smith” for the first question/answer; “JS” for the second and onwards).
- All interview questions should be in bold.
- Please mark the space between an answer and the next question with a blank.