CFP: The Routledge Companion to Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship

Editors Michelle May-Curry and Daniel Fisher-Livne are calling for contributors to a new edited volume on theories and practices of the publicly engaged humanities to be published in 2023 by Routledge. Proposal materials are due by December 1, 2021. Authors will be notified of their selection by the end of December.

The core of this companion will consist of 25 wide-ranging, practice-based essays, exploring the history, concepts, and possible futures of publicly engaged humanities scholarship in the United
States. To build a foundation for these futures, this volume will collect case studies, predominantly from the United States, grounding discussion of their methodologies and objectives. The project meets an acute need in the field of publicly engaged humanities scholarship, which the editors hope will serve as a standard reference guide for future training in the public humanities in a higher education context.

Following an introduction to the field and its history and methods, the volume will be organized
around five areas of particular impact in publicly engaged humanities scholarship:

1. Informing contemporary debates
2. Amplifying community voices and histories
3. Helping individuals and communities navigate difficult experiences
4. Preserving culture in times of crisis and change
5. Expanding educational access

Complementing these core case studies, the companion will conclude with a glossary of roughly
25 key terms, sourced from the case study authors, introducing the conceptual vocabulary of
publicly engaged humanities scholarship. The entries in this section will draw on the case
studies to explore critical concepts and methods, such as anti-colonial praxis, gallery walk, and
partnership.

In particular, the editors welcome proposals for case studies with associated glossary entries on:

• Projects with an international focus, or in partnership with organizations based outside of the continental U.S.
• Anti-racist approaches to the public humanities
• Public humanities projects based in or partnered with community colleges
• Transdisciplinary work, including the arts, interpretative social sciences, and sciences
• Work that addresses environmental challenges and solutions
• Projects that forged unique and equitable partnerships
• Space, place, and the public humanities – including works that challenge power and its geographic distribution
• Theoretical reflections and analyses of public humanities methods and practices
• Reflections on the place of higher ed in public humanities, in and across the broader communities of which it and its humans (students, staff, faculty) are parts
• Humanities in the public sphere, including the role of the “public intellectual” in higher-ed

Taken together, these resources will offer an overview and entry point for students and practitioners of publicly engaged scholarship into the field and its possibilities. It will serve scholars and students, creating an accessible, grounded vocabulary rooted in the practices that have advanced academic and community life.

Proposals should include:

• A 100-word biographical statement
• A 300-word chapter abstract outlining the case study you would like to discuss and the broader lessons it might teach current and future generations of publicly engaged humanities scholars.
• A proposed subject for your glossary entry, surfacing and discussing a key issue or method relating to your case study.

Please note that there will be an online convening for contributors in April, 2022 to create a
community of practice and encourage feedback on authors’ submissions.