“Water Works”: A Call for Papers for a Special Issue

The Gastronomica Editorial Collective invites submissions for a special issue on water.

Essential to life, key to cooking, and making up more than 50% of the human body, water is fundamental yet often ignored, dismissed, wasted, even feared as a source of contamination. As people in many parts of the world have become accustomed to water-intensive agriculture and food production processes, others are struggling with water access. The United Nations estimates that more than 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe water, a condition that is exacerbated by political conflict and environmental degradation, resulting in devastating consequences for food security and health.

With such a topic that defies categorization, our guidelines for submissions are perhaps more fluid than in a typical CFP. We want to see a flood of creative and scholarly pieces, translations, as well as artworks that explore a wide range of interdisciplinary interactions and intersections from sensory science to environmental studies, from food production to culinary history, from social justice to cultural and community perspectives. We ask authors to think broadly and deeply about topics addressing, for example:

  • water rights and Indigenous communities;
  • water and innovations in agriculture, brewing, winemaking, and other arenas of food and drink;
  • impacts of climate change on food production and coastal communities;
  • the changing specter of water;
  • water, food chains, and culinary infrastructure;
  • the promise and perils of aquaculture and aquaponics;
  • food and watersheds;
  • floating markets and distribution channels;
  • taste; access, inequity, and waste.

Research articles and critical translations (with introductions, reference lists, and notes) should be between 4000-8000 words. In addition, we invite creative Food Phenomena pieces that focus on water, including creative essays and visual works, such as photo essays (see art submission guidelines here). Both Scholarly and Food Phenomena pieces should be submitted via the journal’s ScholarOne platform, following our submission guidelines

Deadline for submissions for this special issue: 15 May 2022.

*Please note that we continue to invite all other forms of Scholarly and Food Phenomena submissions on a variety of topics for future issues.

New Call for Submissions: “Food in the time of COVID”

In addition to our standing invitation for scholarly research and “Food Phenomena” submissions, the Editorial Collective of Gastronomica will continue to highlight the impact of COVID-19 on local and global food systems. We invite the following submissions:

  • Research ‘briefs’ (500-3,000 words): shorter treatments of developing projects, vital research questions, and/or the essential methodologies for the study of food and pandemics. Research briefs will be blind peer-reviewed. 
  • Teaching ‘briefs’ (300-2,000 words): reflections on and studies of pedagogy (“remote” or otherwise) and food’s far-flung social, economic, cultural, and medical impacts in the context of pandemic(s).  (“Pedagogy” pertains to teaching practices from pre-school to universities, virtual spaces, as well as to public spaces, and includes an array of voices, from academics to tour guides to cooks to artists.)
  • “Dispatches” (100-1000 words), shorter pieces drawn from lived experience of this pandemic (and other pandemics): portraits, creative non-fiction, telephonic/digital interviews, photographs and other images, and more.  
  • Regular and full-length research and Food Phenomena pieces, including, but not limited to fully realized submissions about food in the time of COVID-19As always, Gastronomica seeks to publish work that presents new and original research, advances our understanding of the pressing topics, theories, and methods in the world of food, and invites critical commentary.  

Deadline: Review of submissions will begin immediately. In order to be considered for issue 20.4 (Winter 2020), submissions must be received no later than 15 July 2020. Later submissions can be considered for future issues.  Some submissions may also be selected for online publication as part of our Web Exclusive series,* and/or featured on Heritage Radio Network’s “Meant To Be Eaten” (MTBE) podcast (in collaboration with host Coral Lee for a regular collaborative Gastronomica/MTBE mini-series).  

(*Note that any submissions selected only for online publication will not be indexed by Gastronomica)

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