• Reconceptualizations of time in the context of globalization
• Changing relationships between local and global temporalities and between various local temporalities
• Contested globalization discourses and their temporal conceptualizations
• Interplays of spatial and temporal logics in the context of globalization
• The impact of global temporalities, for example acceleration or simultaneity, on democracy 
• Representations of globalization and temporality in literature, film, and popular and digital cultures
• The relative importance of speed and space in global business and war
• Differential collective and individual experiences of global temporalities
• Rethinking the relationships between gender, sexualities, age, class, culture, ability, geography and global temporalities
• Tensions between personal, corporate, governmental and environmental temporalities
• The circulation and acceleration of new health risks and new public health challenges
• Global public policies and changing temporalities
• The role of activism in addressing the intersections of globalization and time, with regard to social justice, efficiency, productivity, speed, or sustainability

 CFP: Special Issue ARIEL: A Review of International Literature — Postcolonial Ecocriticisms among Settler-Colonial Nations

Both postcolonialism and ecocriticism are terms fraught with tensions. While they haven’t followed identical trajectories through time and criticism, both critical strategies nevertheless occupy similar modes and subjects of attention in contemporary literary theory. Yet, as Helen Tiffin and Graham Huggan suggest in Postcolonial Ecocriticism, approaching the two fields as correctives for one another perpetuates the assumptions that postcolonialism appeals only to anthropocentric values, while ecocriticism attends solely to eco-/bio-centric views. Postcolonial-ecocritical approaches have the capacity to work in complementary ways, illustrating the constitutive relations between social and environmental concerns.

We want to situate this special issue of ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature in the wake of recent critical efforts to engage the dynamic field of postcolonial ecocriticism such as Postcolonial Green, Postcolonial Ecologies, and Wilderness into Civilized Shapes. We seek articles that focus on contemporary cultural production from specific settler-colonial spaces: Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. Acknowledging the ways these regions have generally been considered together as “white settler colonies” with shared histories as Commonwealth nations, we are assuming, after Annie E. Coombes in Rethinking Settler Colonialism, that the similar “administrative structures and civic institutions” provide a basis from which to begin considering the heterogeneous ways in which settler colonials in “Australia,” “Canada,” “New Zealand,” and “South Africa” positioned themselves vis-à-vis Indigenous communities. In other words, the limited geographical scope of this special issue aims to both acknowledge the historical (if problematic) grouping of these nations as settler-colonial societies and encourage different strategies for thinking the connections between them.

We are particularly interested in comparative papers about contemporary/emergent writers and authors/texts not commonly studied either beyond their nations’ respective borders or from within the merging perspectives of postcolonialism and ecocriticism. A focus on contemporary writers, in particular young/emerging writers, stems precisely from the fact of their contemporaneity, which enables them to deal with and challenge “postcolonial” and “ecocritical” issues and concepts that have themselves emerged out of decades of postcolonial and ecocritical studies.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

environmental justice

nonhuman animals

ecologies of war/animals at war

eco-cosmopolitanism

Truth & Reconciliation

spatial organization

resource extraction/depletion

SF/speculative fiction

science (western and non-western)

poverty

ecological/environmental diaspora

ecological imperialism

food systems/agribusiness

biopolitics/biotechnologies

water

ecopoetry

national parks/conservation areas

narratives of retreat/back to the land

human-animal relations

homecoming/notions of belonging

coastlines/oceans

desertification

Please send 250-word proposals to guest editors Travis V. Mason, Elzette Steenkamp, and Lisa Szabo-Jones at PocoEcoIssue@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is 13 July 2012.

Source: http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/mmooney/urbanforest.htm

Urban Forests & Political Ecologies: Celebrating Transdisciplinarity
Toronto, ON – April 18-20th, 2013
Submission Deadline: 15 October 2012

This three-day conference will cover a wide range of issues related to urban ecologies and political transgressions. It is designed for students, faculty, practitioners, community members, artists and researchers of all disciplines who are interested in enhancing their understanding of the various narratives that shape urban green spaces and the pedagogies that contribute to engaging with those diverse perspectives.

We encourage the submission of proposals that examine a variety of subjects relating to urban forests and culture broadly conceived within one of the six panel themes: a) Historical Narratives; 2) Urban Tree Cultures: Identities and Perspectives; 3) Social Inclusion in the Urban Forest: Scalar injustices and community connections; 4) From Government to Governance: Redefining politics; 5) Urban Ecology Pedagogies: Innovative approaches to education; 6) Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Urban Forest.

We welcome submissions from academics, graduate students, professionals, practitioners and artists. We are particularly interested in inter-and-transdisciplinary approaches and encourage artistic expressions and performance pieces.

Submission Guidelines: There are three categories for submission: 1) Oral Presentations; 2) Poster Presentations; and, 3) Art Exhibition.

Call for Oral Presentations: Each panel will include five speakers: a keynote speaker, an academic paper presentation, a student paper presentation, a practitioner and case study, and an artistic expression or reflective piece (ie. illustration, performance, short film, poetry) discussing how this area has been impacting society at large (outside of academic research). Abstracts should clearly indicate your preferred panel theme, as well as what speaker category for which you wish to be considered.

Call for Poster Presentations: Posters will be displayed for the first two days of the conference. Dimensions: 2×3 feet

Call for Visual Art Representations and Photo Essays (Art Exhibit): If submitting for the art exhibit, please send a photograph of your artwork along with your abstract.

Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and are accepted until October 15th, 2012.
To propose a paper, a poster or an artistic expression or performance, please send all submissions via email to: submissions@ufpe.ca

Further information is available at the conference website: www.ufpe.ca

Graeme Wynn and David Brownstein have been confirmed as the editors of the Canadian contribution to the World Forest History Series.

The volumes are intended to address inter alia the “rise of state and scientific forestry and the evolution of environmental land management practices, with a special focus on colonial forestry and its legacy,” and to ”feature a substantial section of primary sources related to the history of humans and forests.” Recognizing the scale and importance of forest history in Canada, the series editors, Gregory Barton and Brett Bennett have suggested two volumes on Canada, one of essays and the other of primary source documents. Wynn and Brownstein are developing outlines/ preferred emphases for the volumes, but would appreciate hearing from anyone interested in contributing at their earliest convenience.

This is also a formal call for proposed papers (of approximately 8-10000 words in length). Proposals (of 500 words or so) may be chronological, historiographical, thematic or regional in focus and should be sent to both wynn@geog.ubc.ca and david.brownstein@geog.ubc.ca by 1 May 2012.

Please consider the following:
1- the volumes should be readable and coherent for all readers, not just geographers and historians. This means, among other things, writing in plain language and avoiding overly partisan language. We hope to make the volumes specialized enough to draw audiences from the scholarly community but broad enough to interest non-scholarly readers.

2- we would like to involve foresters and scientists in this project, especially with a view to offering some current perspectives on forestry.

3- There should be some historiographical analysis, such as an overview of shifting interpretations of forest history.

4- The series seeks to integrate national histories into both imperial and world histories. This implies that contributions should attend, as appropriate, to the relations between Canada and the British Empire and the world.

• Reconceptualizations of time in the context of globalization
• Changing relationships between local and global temporalities and between various local temporalities
• Contested globalization discourses and their temporal conceptualizations
• Interplays of spatial and temporal logics in the context of globalization
• The impact of global temporalities, for example acceleration or simultaneity, on democracy 
• Representations of globalization and temporality in literature, film, and popular and digital cultures
• The relative importance of speed and space in global business and war
• Differential collective and individual experiences of global temporalities
• Rethinking the relationships between gender, sexualities, age, class, culture, ability, geography and global temporalities
• Tensions between personal, corporate, governmental and environmental temporalities
• The circulation and acceleration of new health risks and new public health challenges
• Global public policies and changing temporalities
• The role of activism in addressing the intersections of globalization and time, with regard to social justice, efficiency, productivity, speed, or sustainability

Environmental Humanities is a new journal, launching on November 2012. It is an international, open-access journal that aims to invigorate current interdisciplinary research on the environment. In response to a growing interest around the world in the many questions that arise in this era of rapid environmental and social change, the journal will publish outstanding scholarship that draws humanities disciplines into conversation with each other, and with the natural and social sciences.

In anticipation for their upcoming launch, they are searching for article submissions. Further information can be found here. 

ALTERNATIVES’ final issue of 2012 will explore the next generation of job opportunities and identify how to choose an environmentally conscious career path right now. To complement our annual Canadian Environmental Education Directory (which compiles post-secondary degree program details from across the country), we are seeking feature stories and smaller articles that deliver insights about the evolution of learning and employment.

What industries will need a big influx of new workers before 2020 (and why)? What fields or modes of study are making vital contributions to the planetary future (and how)? Which educators are teaching principles or deploying tools that could radically improve our relationships with nature and each other? What are the most exciting new careers in ecological stewardship and social justice? What small-footprint skills and disciplines are resurging? What environmental learning opportunities are out there that everyone should be plugged into? What should both teachers and students be focused on in order to build a more sustainable future?

Story possibilities could also include the following:
* Profiles of businesses/industries/workers that deliver a lot of benefits to the planet (restoring degraded environments, providing livelihoods for the jobless, reducing energy and resource demand, empowering the voiceless, building understanding …)
* Creative examples of grassroots and community-based education and learning initiatives that tackle specific local environmental issues, either in Canada or abroad;
* Profiles of people who hold key positions in an emerging field of environmental science, policy or advocacy which has a lot of near-future growth potential;
* A discussion of how indigenous perspectives on the natural world could (and should) be integrated with mainstream science to promote stewardship;
* A brief analysis of a trend or research in environmental education and jobs.

To submit your proposal, please follow the proposal guidelines and checklist that appear below.

* * * * *

Alternatives combines the learned rigour of an academic journal with the breezy style of a magazine. We aim to publish the best environmental writing in the country – writing that is engaging, thought-provoking and insightful. Before responding to this call, please read several back issues of the magazine so that you understand the nature of our publication. We also
suggest you go through the detailed submission procedures on our website to understand the types and lengths of articles we accept.
In about 300 words, proposals should explain the content and scope of your article, as well as convey your intended approach, tone and style. Please include a list of people you will interview, potential image sources and the number of words you propose to write. We would also like to receive a very short bio. If you have not written for Alternatives before, please also include other examples of your writing.
Keep in mind that our lead time is several months. Articles should not be so time-bound that they will seem dated once published.
A registered charity, Alternatives has a limited budget of 10 cents per word for several articles. This stipend is available to professional and amateur writers and students only. Please indicate your interest in this funding in your proposal.
Send proposals electronically (with “38.6 pitch” in your email subject line) in word format (not pdf) to Eric Rumble, Editor (editor @ alternativesjournal.ca) by first thing Monday March 26, 2012 at 9am Eastern Standard Time.

*Check List*
PLEASE FOLLOW THIS TEMPLATE EXACTLY WHEN PREPARING YOUR PROPOSAL:
1. Name
2. Phone, address, email, Skype
3. Do you request a stipend?
4. Length of article
5. One paragraph bio
6. 300-word-long description of your article
7. List of people you will interview
8. Ideas for images to accompany your article
9. Sample of your writing for those who have not yet written for Alternatives.

–
Eric Rumble | Editor
Alternatives Journal | Canada’s environment magazine
P: 519 888 4505 | F: 519 746 0292 | E: eric@alternativesjournal.ca