Call for Submissions

Behind Enemy Lines: Advancing the Work of Inclusion, Equity, and Justice in Precarious Times and Places

Special issue

The ADVANCE Journal is accepting submissions for a special issue Behind Enemy Lines: Advancing the Work of Inclusion, Equity, and Justice in Precarious Times and Places. We are interested in receiving scholarly narratives and other manuscript types that disrupt dominant-culture policies and center the needs of those who have been historically excluded from STEM-based equity initiatives, including women, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, individuals with disabilities, at-will faculty, and others.

In the context of highly-coordinated and concerted attacks on academic freedoms, STEM faculty and others in higher education find themselves working within the very systems and structures of oppression that they are committed to dismantling. Many STEM faculty, administrators, and other higher education professionals, whose work centers IEJ (Inclusion, Equity, and Justice) have recently been reassigned, dismissed, or put at risk in colleges and universities located in states and regions with conservative governments. As a result, we now find ourselves at a critical crossroad. Efforts have begun to collapse and even eliminate DEI initiatives, NSF ADVANCE programs and their rich histories, and academic units such as Women and Gender Studies. We are thrust to the frontlines of combatting and warring against the ways in which systems of power and oppression are manifest within institutions and threatening our livelihoods. Educators across disciplines, STEM faculty, in particular, find themselves constrained and uncertain as public trust in science erodes and as legislatures regulate what can and cannot be taught in the classroom.

Not only is the threat to US global competitiveness in science and technology profound, but also many STEM faculty feel personally under attack because of their own identities, experiences, and commitments, even as they work to support marginalized students who feel unwelcome on their own campuses, in classes, and in laboratory settings. In parts of the country, areas of research and study in STEM such as women’s health, reproductive health, mental health, transgender health, climate change and justice have been politicized to the extent that scholars and their work are under threat. Scholars who are trans* and non-binary in states where transgender rights are under attack, find both their identities and research under scrutiny. This climate of fear and repression will significantly impact science and social science scholarship if research and writing on certain topics are prevented or if they fear repercussions for touching on controversial subjects or themes in their scholarship, teaching, and activism.

Professors and researchers in STEM may be particularly at risk because STEM disciplines were in many ways already precarious places for IEJ work in many universities. The threat of running afoul of the law, being denied tenure or subject to tenure review, or losing out on other opportunities may drive IEJ efforts almost completely out of STEM spaces in universities located in states with conservative governments.

Over the past year, we also witnessed large-scale campus protests against ongoing wars and militarization, which saw participation from students and faculty across disciplines, being met with violent and swift reprisal including disciplinary actions and dismissals. Such institutional responses, when considered alongside attempts to restrict academic freedoms at large, point to a significant shift in higher education. Regulating academic speech, limiting the scope of scholarship, ignoring students’ needs, and creating an environment hostile to open and free learning all work as enemies of authentic, effective, and empowering higher education.

Guidelines for authors

ADVANCE Journal invites explorations of the experiences and impacts of the changing landscape of higher education in places where academic freedoms and IEJ efforts are under attack. Submissions can be research papers, personal narratives, theoretical essays, literature reviews, project assessments, poetry, performance, music, multimedia submissions, and art that speak to the current crisis in higher education of working toward inclusion, equity, and justice behind enemy lines. We are especially interested in work that features the use of data justice principles in evidence-informed IEJ initiatives. Publications can be anonymous. Each submission should be original and not under review elsewhere.

Please submit on or before Tuesday, 7th January, 2025

To submit: https://www.advancejournal.org/for-authors

For more information or queries, contact the ADVANCE Journal editorial team at ADVANCE@oregonstate.edu