2014-2015 Call for Guest Editors!

“Rock Series – Microphones” by Flickr user Stefano Tambalo, CC BY 2.0

This is a call for proposals for Guest Editors from Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog. SO! is a weekly publication and archive that offers a dynamic platform for readers, scholars and artists working in sound studies. Since January, we have operated a stream of articles posted 2-3 Thursdays per month dedicated primarily (but not exclusively) to work written and curated by members and friends of the American Studies Association and the Society for Cinema & Media Studies.

I’m the Special Editor for this stream, working closely with Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Stoever, Managing Editor Liana Silva and Multimedia Editor Aaron Trammell. I hope you’ll think of this real estate as an exciting place to experiment with new forms of writing and editing oriented toward a wider public than scholarly publishing can usually reach.

Here are some examples of guest-edited series that we’ve published in this stream over the last year.

The Wobble Continuum, on race and dubstep. Edited by Justin D. Burton (Rider University) with posts by Mike D’Errico (UCLA), Christina Giacona (U of Oklahoma), and Burton.

Radio de Acción, on Latin American radio and the idea of region. Edited by Tom McEnaney (Cornell), with posts by Alejandra Bronfman (UBC) and Karl Swinehart (Uchicago)

Start a Band, reflecting on the legacy of Lou Reed. Edited by me, with posts by Jacob Smith (Northwestern) and Tim Anderson (Old Dominion)

Sculpting the Film Soundtrack, on new directions in film sound design. Edited by Katherine Spring (Wilfrid Laurier), with posts by Randolph Jordan (Simon Fraser), Danijela Kulezic-Wilson (University College, Cork) and Benjamin Wright (University of Southern California)

Hearing the Unheard, on sound beyond human hearing. Edited by Seth Horowitz (NeuroPop) with forthcoming posts by the sound artist China Blue (The Engine Institute), Milton A. Garcés (University of Hawaii at Manoa) and Margaret A. Schedel (Stonybrook).

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ABOUT SO!

Sounding Out! has been building the sound studies community since 2009. The site has published over 300 essays (including dozens by ASA Sound Studies Caucus and SCMS Sound SIG and Radio SIG members), produced over 30 podcasts, and done a number of forums, live-at events, conference roundups, and seasonal series. SO! has an average of more than 300 readers per day (nearly 350,000 all-time page views) and its work has been cited in publications ranging from American Quarterly to the Huffington Post. Our site has recently been picked up to be listed in the MLA Index and we have an ISSN number.

For more, read our mission statement here and our editorial statement here. You can see a list of the SO! Advisory Board, many of them ASA and SCMS members, here.

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ABOUT GUEST EDITING

A Guest Editor is responsible for developing a theme in conjunction with SO!’s long-standing intellectual focus on power and social difference, recruiting 2-5 writers for a series of posts on that theme, and editing their work to meet the tone and space requirements of the site in a timely manner. Decisions on programming and editing are guided by a mission to explore the cultural politics of sound and listening in a wide variety of social contexts and editors actively seek out work from marginalized communities of scholars, artists, and performers.

The editing cycle generally starts one month prior to a publication date – we use an intensive peer-to-peer editing process in which you will work directly with the writer, and posts undergo several edits to meet rigorous intellectual and rhetorical standards, in consultation with experts on our Advisory Board. As Special Editor, I will work with you at all stages of this process, and help build posts prior to publication.

So if you want to guest edit a series – perhaps fostering discussion on a contemporary phenomenon or event, on a fresh concept or new approach that could develop well in public, on treasures in a particular archive, or something more creative that “does” sound studies differently – send a 300 word pitch naming possible contributors to nkhv@soundingoutblog.com

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ABOUT OUR POSTS

POSTS are generally 1200 words in length, plus audio and images. We encourage writers to be creative with multimedia. Submissions from graduate students and junior faculty are highly encouraged. We are especially interested in works that take an international focus, and in pieces written in languages other than English (with translation, ideally). This is a place to publish your work, but it is also a venue for provocations that rethink what critical scholarly platforms ought to be. Both writers and editors should read several Sounding Out! posts to familiarize themselves with the genre and tone of our site.

We’ve set a deadline of Nov. 20th for editors interested in the 2015 calendar year. Strong early submissions could receive swift acceptance to fill spots in February and March.

Questions? Proposals? Contact me at: nkhv@soundingoutblog.com

Thanks and best wishes, Neil Verma (Northwestern University), Special Editor, Sounding Out!