2022 NEPES Call for Papers
As we enter the third year of the global pandemic, the reality of teaching and learning proves a necessary human endeavor, and a puzzling one at that. Students, teachers, and families have struggled through intermittent school closures, distance learning, and in-person teaching among other things. Acknowledging that not every situation must yield returns, one might nevertheless wonder, “What can be learned from teaching in these challenging times?” Specifically, we might question where we can retrieve the “intellectual fellowship and radical openness” that bell hooks (1994) believes are “the heart and soul of learning” (p. 205).
In Teaching to Transgress hooks writes
Talking about pedagogy, thinking about it critically, is not the intellectual work that most folks think is hip and cool. Cultural criticism and feminist theory are the areas of my work that are most deemed interesting by student and colleagues alike. Most of us are not inclined to see discussion of pedagogy as central to our academic work and intellectual growth, or the practice of teaching as work that enhances and enriches scholarship. Yet it has been the mutual interplay of thinking, writing and sharing ideas as an intellectual and teacher that creates whatever insights are in my work. My devotion to that interplay keeps me teaching in academic settings, despite their difficulties. (p. 205)
She invites us to think of our pedagogy critically and creatively as an intersectional space that may generate theory. Additionally, hooks challenges us to move beyond the opposition between the practice of teaching and intellectual work which so often plagues the thinking of academia and of policy makers. And hooks compels us to consider philosophically the practice of teaching and to think of schools as places to seek out intellectual fellowship and radical openness.
With this call, NEPES invites work that engages hooks’ recommendations. We seek papers from scholars of any rank or career stage that respond to the theme, whether as specific or broad interpretations. In addition and alternatively, we invite paper and panel proposals on any topic that deepens our collective understanding of philosophy and education.
Reference: hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, 1994.
Special Call for Panel: In light of bell hooks’ emphasis on the richness and centrality of scholarly discussions on pedagogy and “the practice of teaching,” we invite panel proposals on the teaching of hooks’ work as part of your curricular offerings. These panels will offer a space for the sharing of diverse ways of engaging hooks’ work across a variety of educational settings — early childhood, K-12, or in higher education. For individual scholars interested in serving on this panel, please reach out to nepes2022submissions@gmail.com and make sure you indicate “teaching hooks’ work panel” in your email headline.
Proposal Guidelines
Due Date: June 1, 2022
Please submit proposals by email to: nepes2022submissions@gmail.com. Proposals may be submitted as either 1) Paper Proposals or 2) Panel Proposals. Please make sure all proposals are fully anonymized.
Papers*
A traditional feature of our conference, paper sessions provide a context in which 3-4 individual papers can be presented by authors and subsequently discussed during a question-and-answer period.
How to propose a paper:
In the body of your email, please include the following: Name(s), institutional affiliation (or independent scholar), postal address, email address, and phone number of the author(s). 2.
In a single Word document or PDF, please include:
The title of the paper
A description of the paper: In no more than 500 words, please describe the topic, approach/methods, synopsis of arguments/findings, and significance of the paper.
Panels
Panel sessions provide an opportunity for a collection of scholars to discuss their thoughts on interrelated and abiding projects. This promises to be a rich space for innovative and challenging ideas.
How to propose a panel session
In the body of your email, please include the following: Names of panel participants, institutional affiliations (or independent scholar), postal addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of all the panelists.
In a single Word document or PDF, please include:
The title of the panel
A description of the panel: In no more than 1,000 words, please describe the topic, perspectives, and significance of the panel. In this, please also include a description of the contributions of each panelist.
*Note: In instances of strong compatibility and fit, the Program Committee may decide to accept and group paper proposals within panel sessions. Submitted proposals may also indicate a willingness to be so grouped.
Please direct any questions to NEPES Vice President and Program Chair Cristina Cammarano (cxcammarano@salisbury.edu).