PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS AND SUBMISSIONS THE ARTS IN RESEARCHING MIGRANT LIVES: BIOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS TO MOVE AUDIENCES AND TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES Edited by J. Gary Knowles and Valerie Damasco Focus and Contributions We invite contributions situated at the intersection of the arts and the exploration of emigrant / immigrant / migrant lives (including persons of non-status such as refugees or temporary workers). The underlying motivation for the edited volume is to show how researchers use biographical research methods complemented or infused with and by the arts to illuminate the complexity and challenges of migrant lives and so induce social change for the benefit of individuals, communities, and societies. The chapters are to be accessible to a wide readership. They are directed towards scholars and practitioners as well as others interested in the portrayal of migrant lives including English-speaking migrants themselves. There are two kinds of contributions. The first provides examples of how various art forms (and media) are used to depict the lives and challenges of migrants. These are relatively short but illustrative examples of the work of artists of various kinds and, together, are clustered in a section entitled Inspired by Artists. The second are accounts grounded in more formal, methods-based, research projects of various kinds (often university-supported) and are gathered in a section entitled The Art of Migrant Lives. Both kinds of manuscript are elaborated below: Inspired by Artists Chapters in this section highlight the work of an artist (or artists) in her or his (or their) depictions of migrant lives. Film, video, new media, performances of all kinds (including dance and stage plays / drama), two dimensional artwork (including community murals), literary fiction (the novel) and creative non fiction, and poetry are examples of possible art forms (see also below). The purpose of the section is to show the range of media forms used to explore lives and experiences, conditions and challenges, and to illustrate or emphasize the possibilities of inspiration for academic and arts-informed research work / scholarship. (Contributions are about 10 pages, double spaced, and 12-point font.) The Art of Migrant Lives Chapters in this section evidence the exploration of emigrant / immigrant lives from a variety of conceptual, theoretical, and procedural perspectives and for diverse purposes. The underlying and linking element is how the arts influences work that aims to induce social and political transformations. With the exception of some key chapters (which serve as kind of primers and section introductions) each account demonstrates the inspiration and purposes for making the arts an integral part of the researching work. How the arts influence decisions about audiences (and visa versa) for the work / scholarship and, then, how researchers go about representing elements of the work to identified audiences is foregrounded. As such, each contribution possess three qualities: • a focus on the creative, theoretical, procedural / methodological ways that art influences researching into the human condition. In particular the contributions evidence creative means of conceptualizing the research as well as innovative, boundary-pushing information gathering processes. Particular attention is also given to ways of communicating the arts-inspired and –informed work to diverse audiences through representations which embrace the arts such as spoken word and radio productions (including story), published texts (such as literary poetic and even photographic forms), theatre (drama readers theatre and comedy for example) and other performative arts (such as dance and mime) three dimensional installations and sculpture, two dimensional visual art (including painting, drawing, and photography) exhibits and murals, film and new media (including video, web-based), and others such as the craft of quilting, graffiti, cartoons. • an underlying orientation on the biographical study of lives (as opposed to cultures or institutions) so that life history, personal history / oral history, life narrative, life story, autobiography, autoethnography are the key orientations central to the perspectives of researching lives. • attention to the emigrant / immigrant / migrant experience is essential but with the research account centred on the possibilities and challenges of illuminating lives lived through creative researching practices and arts-related forms of representation. In all chapters within the section The Art of Migrant Lives the roles of the arts are foregrounded in the researching endeavours but the section (as a whole) is tied together by the biographical and the attention to matters of the individual experience of migration. Contributions are limited to 20, double-spaced, 12-point font manuscript pages including images (although all authors should first consult with the editors on the kinds and number of images proposed). Interested authors should either send a proposal or inquire further of the editors as to the suitability of their work for the book before making a submission. Manuscript guidelines will then be provided. Proposals should be made no later than September 30, 2009 with final drafts received by January 15, 2010. Preproduction of the book will be completed by late Spring 2010 with a publishing date of 2010. Valerie Damasco Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto E-mail: vdamasco@oise.utoronto.ca J. Gary Knowles Co-director, Centre for Arts-informed Research Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto 252 Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6 E-Mail: jgaryknowles@oise.utoronto.ca |
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