Call for Papers: Women's Narratives, War, & Peace-Building

WOMEN’S NARRATIVES, WAR, AND PEACE-BUILDING
Deadline: May 21, 2007

Women for Women International, a non-profit humanitarian organization, seeks submissions for the Summer 2007 issue of its bi-annual academic journal, Critical Half. The journal is intended to raise awareness and spark debate among a variety of audiences by presenting various perspectives on economic, social, and political issues as they relate to women in international development and conflict and post-conflict societies.

Critical Half targets the international development and post-conflict reconstruction community, including government policymakers, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, U.S. foundations, academics, and philanthropists, as well as our 166,000 grassroots supporters.

This issue of the journal will focus on the function of women’s individual and collective narratives during and after war and civil conflict. We hope to examine how stories can unite and heal women and their societies. Accordingly, we welcome articles that consider one or more of the following questions:

How have narratives helped to mobilize women to protest violence, marginalization, and injustice and become active citizens within conflict or post-conflict societies?
How do narratives assist women to personally cope with the challenges of war?

How do societies use narratives to hold perpetrators of abuses accountable and reconcile divisions as they emerge from war?

In what ways do women’s narratives serve as tools to create and sustain peace?

Are there hierarchies of narratives between women? Between women and men? How do these hierarchies shape the documentation and reporting of events within conflict and post-conflict nations and to the international community?

What forms do narratives take among women in conflict and post-conflict societies? Discuss the expression of narratives through public speeches, songs, poetry, literature, radio, television, film/video, and internet/blogs. What, if any, are the different impacts of the various mediums?

Articles should provide at least one example of a country’s experience that demonstrates the writer’s argument. Papers should incorporate a theoretical framework for the argument where possible and a discussion of its practical implications.

Articles should be 2,000-2,500 words long. Please read additional submission guidelines below. Past issues of Critical Half are available at http://www.womenforwomen.org/repubbiannual.htm.

CONTACT:

Tobey Goldfarb at criticalhalf@womenforwomen.org or 202-737-7705

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS:

Approximate Word Limit for Articles

2,000-2,500 words of in-depth, referenced analysis.

Format

All articles should be submitted in their final form and should conform to the following guidelines:

Submissions must be typewritten on one side of the paper only, double-spaced with 1-inch margins, and numbered pages.
Titles and subheadings should be succinct. Women for Women International reserves the right to alter titles and subheadings in consultation with the author.
Tables and figures should be avoided wherever possible. If absolutely necessary, they should be printed on separate pages and numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text, e.g., (Table 1) (Figure 1). The author must supply a camera-ready copy.
Block indent any quotations of more than 50 words. Other quotations should be inside double quotation marks. Use square brackets [ ] to indicate matter inserted into a quotation, and a space followed by three periods and a space to indicate matter omitted. Please indicate where emphasis is added in any quotation.
An acronym used repeatedly should be cited in its entirety along with the abbreviation in parentheses on first reference, e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All subsequent citations should use only the abbreviation.
For other format issues, please conform to The Chicago Manual of Style.

Language

American spelling forms should be used, and authors are responsible for consistency in hyphenating words, abbreviations, and the use of capital letters. Bold and italicized words in the text are discouraged. Articles must be written in non-sexist and non-racist language.
Authors should use a clear, accessible style, free from specialized jargon, in order to reach the widest audience possible. Experts and academics referred to in the text should be identified, e.g., “Political economist Safiétou Faye believes,” rather than “Safiétou Faye believes.”

References

The journal uses endnotes rather than footnotes. Citations listed more than once should use the short form for subsequent listings.
Place the endnote number at the end of the sentence in which it appears, except when the reference falls within a bracket.
Assign a separate number to each endnote throughout the text, even when referring back to a previously cited source.
The first endnote should include any acknowledgements of grant support, substantial assistance, etc.
Bibliographies should only list works directly cited in the endnotes. Lists of general works consulted cannot be published.

Copyright

The journal will consider articles submitted for publication with the understanding that they have not been published or accepted for publication elsewhere. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of quotations and references and for obtaining permission where needed to cite or republish another author’s material. Such use must be clearly noted and acknowledged.
Once an article has been accepted for publication, it becomes the property of Women for Women International and may not be reproduced or published elsewhere by third parties without written permission from Women for Women International. Authors retain the right to reuse any portion of the work, without fee, in their future works, including books, articles, lectures and presentations in all media, with appropriate citation. In accordance with the 1978 U.S. copyright law, all authors submitting articles to the journal must sign a copyright transfer agreement.

Journal Copies

Each author will be mailed two copies of the issue in which the article appears. Authors should contact Women for Women International if additional copies are needed.

Submission

Submissions should be sent by e-mail as an attachment, preferably in MS Word for Windows.
In addition to the article, authors must provide a detachable title page that includes the title and author(s), a 200-word abstract of the article, a 50-word biographical profile of the author(s) that includes titles, degrees, academic and professional affiliations, and correspondence information (address, telephone, e-mail, and fax) for the author(s).
All submitted articles are subject to peer editorial review and revision; those that are accepted will be edited according to journal standards. Authors will be given reasonable periods of time to submit revisions to content as recommended by a peer reviewer, and stylistic edits as recommended by journal editorial staff. Corrections of punctuation, spelling, and style will not be submitted for author’s approval if they do not alter the sense of the original article. If previously accepted articles do not adequately address mutually agreed upon revisions by the deadline, Women for Women International reserves the right to cancel publication of the article.

Contact Information

Women for Women International

Attn: Critical Half

4455 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 200

Washington, DC 20008

202-737-7705

criticalhalf@womenforwomen.org

Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife, and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.

Deadline: May 21, 2007