In light of the recent postponement of the ASAP/12 annual conference in Salt Lake City, the editors of ASAP/Journal and ASAP/J invite you to take part in a special publishing event: Thinking With. This event is not meant to replace the conference; rather, our aim is to mobilize the publishing outlets of ASAP as means for staying in touch, working collaboratively, and responding to one another’s work.
To this end, the editors of ASAP/J—the online platform of ASAP/Journal—welcome multi-person contributions that explore how we think with each other even in each other’s absence. This is a formal rather than specifically topical call.
We invite you to consider the digital means at your disposal (video, image, audio, text, forums) and publishable on ASAP/J as you develop features or events to be published by and/or hosted on the site. We are happy to work with many digital formats, though if you have a particularly technical idea, please do contact us to see whether it will be possible. We welcome interviews, “cluster” features of short form essays, multimedia virtual exhibitions and showcases, forums and other forms of discussion. While by no means a rule and depending on the number of authors per cluster, text should be about 500-1500 words in length to foster dialogue, yield more experimental answers, and challenge disciplinary boundaries. In total, clusters will not exceed 6,000 words. We aim to publish discrete collaborative pieces at regular intervals from 1 October 2020 to 15 March 2021.
Note on Forms
NB – Thinking With is neither soliciting nor accepting stand-alone single-author feature essays, though ASAP/J remains open to short pitches for such submissions, which you can send to asapjeditors@gmail.com.
We imagine that most submissions will fall into one of the following two categories:
Clusters
We are using “cluster” to describe a series of topically linked essay or roundtable discussion in print, video, sound, or image. Cluster proposals can be either “open” or “closed.” Closed clusters will be assembled by the Cluster Editor on an invitation-only basis. Contributors to closed clusters should be consulted in advance of the submission and be named—with institutional affiliation and department where relevant—in the proposal. Open cluster proposals should take the form of a 200-word call for papers. Approved open cluster CFPs will then be circulated via ASAP’s regular channels, including on ASAP/J’s “Calls for Papers” page. Deadlines for submissions will be rolling to ease editorial workflow constraints. Deadlines for all accepted clusters will be assigned upon acceptance. Once the CFPs are circulated, all abstracts, pitches, and submissions for open clusters should be sent directly to the Cluster Editor by date specified in the CFP. For a detailed workflow for Cluster Editors, please see the Checklist below.
Single Submissions
Single submissions are non-cluster submissions such as interviews, discussions, digital exhibitions, or other formats that do not fit under the clusters category outlined above. Please feel free to contact us if you have an idea that is not described within this CFP. It is possible that it would work for this event, but that we have not yet thought of the format you want to propose. We would be happy to hear from you.
When you submit your proposal, please designate it as “Closed Cluster,” “Open Cluster,” or “Single Submission.”
Please feel free to pitch your ideas to us in brief (around 200 words) by: 15 August; 1 October; 15 November 2020; 30 January 2021; 15 March at asapjeditors@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Diversity of perspectives and participants
We encourage clusters with authors in different stages of their career, from graduate student to full professor, including those in contingent and non-academic positions. We will also evaluate more positively proposals that include artists and other practitioners. We encourage all cluster editors to seek participants from multiple disciplines and those that feature diverse methods and areas. Diversity of disciplines in the cluster will be a criterion of evaluation of proposals and we hope that contributors come from at least two different types of academic departments, programs, or fields. In addition, we encourage our applicants to look for and work with new co-contributors to ensure exciting and truly experimental—even unexpected—conversations and collaborations!
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ASAP/J Cluster Editor checklist
(to be shared with contributors)
Basic editing / writing guidelines
- Please use Chicago Manual of Style endnotes;
- Google all proper nouns, especially names of artists, writers, etc., and dates to ensure accuracy;
- follow Merriam-Webster’s (CMOS preference) where spelling questions arise;
- Feel free to link to relevant sources including videos, news stories, etc.
Preparation for layout
Images
- All images must either:
- A) be free from copyright or freely available for reuse; or
- B) have written permission for reproduction from the copyright holder unless fair use applies;
- If in doubt, please seek written permission.
- Please include at least one image that can be used as the “featured” image for the piece; this image will need to be resized / cropped to exactly 752x440px. Feel free to size and crop it yourself; we’re happy to do this as well; landscape layout works best; if you choose a portrait layout, please specify which part you want us to crop to if it’s not obvious. If you don’t know where to find an image, this is a good place to start.
- You’re welcome to include images and / or video in the body of your text. If you do so, please place these between paragraphs for ease of layout in WordPress.
- You can include the images in the file you share with us and place the images in the text yourself; you can also place images in a separate digital folder; if you do this, please specify where the image needs to be place, in its own paragraph, e.g. [Image 3: caption.].
- If you place images in a folder, please name them as “Image 1,” “Image 2,” etc. Our layout people will add the caption you include in the text.
Video
- If you choose to include video, please provide a link to the video owned by the copyright holder and we can embed it;
- If it’s your own video, please host it on your own Vimeo or YouTube, or share the file with us so that we can upload to ASAP/J’s Vimeo account.
Sound
- Please provide link to sound file owned by the copyright holder;
- If it’s your own file, please contact us at asapjeditors@gmail.com to discuss where the file should be hosted.
At the end of your text, please include
Author details
- Brief bio
- Profile picture (if desired)
- Email address (needed to create your WordPress user account for proofreading)
Keywords
- All keywords that might make your text more recognizable to search engines or for navigation within the site
Pull quotes
- At least one pull quote of 117 characters (23 used for link) for Twitter
- One longer quote for Facebook (you’re welcome to use the same pull quote for Facebook and Twitter if you like)
Your social media details
- Your Twitter handle if you have one
- Your Facebook name (it’s easier for us to find you if you “like” us)
- We do not use Instagram currently
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your cluster editor, or the ASAP/J Editor, Abram Foley, and Reviews Editor, Alexandra Kingston-Reese at asapjeditors@gmail.com