** Apologies for Cross Posting**
Call for Chapters - Antiracist Library and Information Science: Racial Justice and Community

Call for Chapters of an edited work: Antiracist Library and Information Science: Racial Justice and Community, part of the Advances in Librarianship Book Series by Emerald Publishing, to be delivered to the publisher in 2022.

Book Editors: Kimberly Black, Ph.D., Chicago State University and Bharat Mehra, Ph.D., University of Alabama

We are soliciting two types of original contributions to this work:
* Scholarly research or theoretical articles with a word count that ranges between 5,500 – 7,000 words
* Reflection essays with a word count that ranges between 1,000 – 2,000 words

Please send your research/theoretical article abstract (500 - 1000 words) or reflection essay abstract (250 words) and a current curriculum vita by JUNE 15, 2021, to editors Kimberly Black (kblack21@csu.edu) and Bharat Mehra (bmehra@ua.edu).

All contributors will be notified of acceptance by July 6, 2021. Complete manuscripts are due to the co-editors on September 30, 2021, and final manuscripts are due on December 30, 2021. All contributions to this volume will undergo peer review.

Description

With the resurgence of the visibility and activism of white supremacy, xenophobic and fascist movements in the U.S. and Europe and with the rise of contemporary, counter-protest activism from groups like Black Lives Matter, Me Too and Antifa, the urgency of the LIS profession to contend with its past and to develop constructive paths forward in service to communities is clear. Despite some modest gains over the years in developing a more inclusive profession and practice, the results for racial justice in LIS are still insufficient to meet the unfolding realities of 21st century communities.

In this work, we begin with the foundational assertion that racism remains a persistent and unresolved issue in contemporary Western society, that racism infects all of its contemporary institutions and practices and that racism mediates all social, political, cultural and economic relations among people in communities. In starting with this assumption, this edited volume attempts to develop a constructive discussion about accomplishing the end of racism in the profession, its practices, its tools and its impacts on people – an antiracist and racially just LIS in service to community.

The book has been conceptualized to provide a response to the following central questions:
* What is antiracist LIS?
* How do we achieve antiracist LIS?
* How can antiracist LIS promote racial justice in society and build community?

This project applies insights from recent work in critical race theory and antiracism including:
* Crenshaw, Gotanda and Thomas’ (1996) Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
* Collins’ (2019) Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory
* Delgado and Stefancic’s (2017) Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
* Feagin, Vera and Batur’s (2000) White Racism: The Basics
* Feagin’s (2006) Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression
* DiAngelo’s (2018) White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
* Blake, Ioanide and Reed’s (2019) Antiracism Inc.
* Kendi’s (2019) How to Be an Antiracist
* Zamalin’s (2019) Antiracism: An Introduction

We acknowledge that race and ethnicity are social categories that have serious, real-world and material consequences for individuals and society. We are seeking articles that directly and forthrightly address race and racism in LIS with a goal of dismantling it. While we respect and acknowledge the role of more intellectually distanced discussions of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and “access” as a proxy for discussions of race, we are seeking more candid, direct and specific approaches to the topic of antiracism in LIS and the implication of it for communities and a just world.

Suggested Topics

A list of suggested topics appears below. The list is not exhaustive.

* Historical and contemporary theories of antiracism and their application to LIS
* Race and racism in the origins, development, structure and practice of LIS
* Critical race frameworks (e.g. CRT, LatCrit, AsianCrit, etc.) and their application to LIS
* Anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, bias, systemic racism and structural racism in LIS
* Indigeneity and diverse knowledge claims/alternate ways of knowing
* Invisibility of whiteness as a race, the ideology of whiteness, and white fragility/denial in LIS
* Impact of race on the values and ethics of LIS
* Racism in LIS practice, policy, research, associations, or education
* Racism in GLAMS, workplaces or specific library environments
* Racist dimensions of the information economy and information technologies
* Macro-level systems of racial oppression in LIS (institutional norms of racial injustice, moral exclusion, and cultural imperialism, etc.)
* Micro-level systems of racial oppression in LIS (e.g. micro aggression, personal prejudice, personal bias, tone-policing, etc.)
* Racism in publishing and collections
* Examples and exemplars of antiracist practices, spaces and resources and their role in supporting antiracist communities
* Impact of antiracist LIS in achieving a just community
* The role of LIS in race-based and other non-fascist or liberation movements and activism
* Development of antiracist and racially just technologies, tools, processes and resources in LIS
* How antiracist LIS supports community activism to promote antiracism/antifascism in society