Edited Collection: Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves

Editors

Dr. Susan Flynn, University of the Arts London

Dr. Antonia Mackay, Oxford Brookes University & Goldsmiths, University of London

Call for Chapters

Proposals submission deadline: 1st November 2015

Notification of acceptance: 1st December 2015

Full chapters due: 1st April 2016

Planned submission: June 2016

Introduction

The unique character of our time is increasingly defined as one of surveillance – a period of being watched and policing ourselves and others. Coupled with this, technologies have permeated throughout our lives, both internally and externally, challenging our understanding of privacy, subjectivity and the notion of the individual. Have these developments impacted upon our understanding of geographical and bodily spaces? Has this changed our ability to understand selves, others and what it means to be ‘real’?

The Western world is central to these concerns, foregrounding and championing surveillance technology through Facebook, Google, Apps designed to pinpoint locations, phones which can track your movement; and this accumulation and commercialisation of ‘personal data’, in the wake of a post 9/11 mentality, the gathering of information seems to be pertinent and radically modern influence on our society and culture. Surveillance and technologies take many forms from the relationships between public and private, to the use of art, film, and literature as reflections of sociocultural concern. The aim of this volume is to bring together literary, cultural and artistic studies to provide a multidisciplinary text aimed to generate answers to fundamental questions: how surveillance and technology has changed the literary, the visual and the subjective.

Recommended Topics

Topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Is there a need for Cultural Studies to address surveillance?
  • How does surveillance affect our conceptions of the global West?
  • What is the significance of space in creating identity?
  • Are there ethical concerns in how surveillance is used in culture?
  • How is meaning created in this environment?
  • Can artefacts challenge our understanding of technological influence on the body and selfhood?
  • Can technologies and surveillance shift notions of nationalism?
  • How does the presence of multiple ‘gazes’ affect cultural narrative?

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a 350-500 word chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposed chapter, on or before 1st November 2015. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by 1st December 2015. Full chapters will be requested on or before the 1st April 2016. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. Please submit proposals as Word documents to both antoniamackay@brookes.ac.uk and susan.flynn.1@ucdconnect.ie using the subject line “Spaces of Surveillance”

Publisher

This edited collection has received initial interest from a number of prominent publishers. Contributors will receive full details and submission guidelines on acceptance of their proposal.

Inquiries

Inquiries may be directed to: antoniamackay@brookes.ac.uk or susan.flynn.1@ucdconnect.ie