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Call for Submissions: Knots Issue #3 Submissions due January 1st, 2017

The Equity Studies program, New College, University of Toronto, invites submissions for the next issue of Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies. Knots is a peer-reviewed journal that highlights high-calibre work by undergraduate students and undergraduate alumni (1), work that moves beyond normative biomedical conceptions of disability and contributes to the development and growth of Disability Studies as a field. The editors are open to the widest array of topics that contribute to Disability Studies and to the continued examination and deconstruction of ableism. Submissions in the forms of essays, creative writing, book and film reviews, and art pieces are welcome. Submissions are not limited to students from the University of Toronto.

The theme for Knots Issue #3 is interdependency. Interdependency challenges ableist and capitalist assumptions of independence as a universal ideal. In Changing the framework: Disability Justice, Mia Mingus (2011) writes:

“...we want to move away from the “myth of independence,” that everyone can and should be able to do everything on their own. I am not fighting for independence … I am fighting for an interdependence that embraces need and tells the truth: no one does it on their own and the myth of independence is just that, a myth.”

In a world where the desirability of independence is a rarely questioned norm, embracing interdependency can be a radical act of resistance for disabled people and allies. Interdependency exists on many levels, including (but not limited to) between humans; humans and animals; humans and machines; and within communities.

We welcome a range of submissions, including those that engage with the concept of interdependency in the context of Disability Studies. We encourage all submissions to take up an intersectional analysis.

Requirements and Reviewing: Submissions should be original and unpublished with an emphasis on completed (rather than intended) works. Essays should be 4500 words maximum, excluding bibliography; book and film reviews should be 1000 words maximum; art pieces should be accompanied by an artist’s statement not in excess of 500 words.

1 ‘Undergraduate alumni’ refers to people who are no longer registered undergraduate students but who wish to submit work produced during their undergraduate degree

Style and process: Manuscripts should be fully and correctly cited in APA style. Submissions will be evaluated on both significance and relevance to the field of Disability Studies as well as technical strength and clarity, and should be accompanied by a 100-word abstract and a short author bio. Submitted work will be subject to peer-review; successfully reviewed entries will be returned to submitters for revisions before being approved for publication. Once the editorial period has come to a close, we will not accept any changes to an accepted paper.

Submission Procedure & Information: The submission process is electronic: all manuscript submissions can be made online to knots.contact@gmail.com by no later than January 1st, 2017. The author/s name and the title of work both should appear in the subject line of the email; the full manuscript should be attached as a PDF file to the editors. Any questions regarding content, submission, or accessibility requests should be directed to knots.contact@gmail.com

We look forward to receiving your submissions and together producing Knots Issue #3!




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