CFP: "Nourishing Trust" Series

Nicole Welk-Joerger Discussion

Thinking C21, the short-form publication for the Center for 21st Century Studies (C21) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is excited to announce that we are now seeking proposals for short essays to be published in the Spring semester of 2023. These short essays will be published alongside C21’s Spring Symposia, entitled Nourishing TrustNourishing Trust is centered on issues of food and land justice and will feature roundtable discussions, an interactive book club, and a participatory research project. The goal of these Nourishing Trust short essays, then, is to contribute to this wellspring of knowledge and begin to answer the following question: What conditions foster trust, and how do they resonate with past, current, and potential land and food justice issues and movements?

We welcome proposals for contributions from researchers and writers from community members, organizations, undergraduate and graduate students, scholars at every stage of their career, and others interested in the intersections of food and justice.

We are particularly interested in, but not limited to, publishing short essays related to the following topics:

  • Agriculture
  • Animal-human relationships
  • Art and building trust
  • Community food initiatives
  • Cooking practices
  • Ecology and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)
  • Environmental history and environmental studies
  • Food deserts
  • Food and health
  • Food journeys
  • Food production
  • Food policy
  • Food and land sovereignty
  • Foraging
  • Histories of food and related land dispossession, resistance, and resilience
  • Philosophies of trust
  • Restorative justice
  • Representations of food
  • Science and technology studies
  • Water

Proposals should be limited to 150-300 words addressing the topic of the post and how it would be relevant to the larger Nourishing Trust research question. The ideal proposal will (1) offer a compelling or underrepresented perspective, (2) establish the story the author wants to tell or the problem they want to bring to their readers’ attention, and (3) fit within the short essay genre.

If accepted, we request you write a short essay approximately 1,000-1,500 words in length, accompanied by 1-2 images. We will provide review, feedback, and editorial guidance for all accepted posts.

Proposals are due Friday, December 16, 2022 via this Google Form. Writers will be notified of their acceptance no later than the end of December, and publication of accepted posts will start in February of the following year.

If you have any questions, please contact Thinking C21 editor Randolph Marcum, at rmarcum@uwm.edu or the C21 team’s general email at c21@uwm.edu. Please include in the subject line “Nourishing Trust CFP”.