Call for Proposals: Prompt Special Issue on Social Justice

Posted by The Prompt Journal on November 26, 2019

Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments is seeking proposals for a special issue on social justice. This issue will highlight and promote the circulation of successful college writing assignments that focus on the topic of social justice as well as those that have the explicit goal of promoting social justice. We hope this special issue will help promote social justice by inspiring instructors who already teach such assignments as well as those who do not.

We are defining social justice as a process of seeking equity. A social justice writing assignment would encourage students to consider systemic inequalities including (but not limited to) racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism. We are looking for writing assignments that explore power and privilege, equity and inequality, activism and social change. We are particularly interested in assignments that encourage students to move from consideration of personal/individual injustice to reflections on systemic or structural inequality. Writing assignments may ask students to reflect on their own intersectionality or encourage students to think about activism as a way to work toward social justice.

We believe that writing assignments that promote social justice come from a wide variety of disciplines, and we are particularly interested in submissions from disciplines where such assignments may be less common, like business and the sciences. Social justice writing assignments may evolve from experiential learning, service-learning, community-engaged learning, or immersion experiences, as well as from traditional classrooms.

Proposals should include a copy of a previously taught assignment with commentary, annotations and/or a short reflection. Commentary should include how the assignment would be appropriate for this special issue. We imagine the total proposal would be 750-1,000 words, depending on the length of the assignment. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, January 15th, 2020. By February 15th, the editors will invite successful applicants to submit a final version of their assignment with a complete reflective essay by April 1, 2020.

Prompt is a biannual, refereed online journal that publishes academic writing assignments. We publish assignments directed at both undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines. Our mission is to disseminate a mode of intellectual work that is too rarely circulated in public venues, and we hope to contribute to the scholarly study of writing assignments in the field of writing studies. We also believe that by publishing excellent and innovative writing assignments, we can create both a resource and a site of engagement for faculty who incorporate writing in their teaching. All assignments published by Prompt are accompanied by a reflective essay by their authors, which provides context and insight into the assignment. Author guidelines can be found here. Past issues of the journal can be found here.

Please direct your proposals and any questions to us at: [email protected]

Deadline for proposal: Wednesday, January 15th, 2020.