*CFP* “ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND MIGRATIONS”, THIRD ISSUE OF JAM IT!

The third issue of JAm It! (Journal of American Studies in Italy) will explore the relations between environmental transformations and migrations in the North American context from a multi-disciplinary perspective. While scholarship in American Studies has produced relevant contributions analyzing the historical and present contingencies of both endogenous and exogenous migratory flows, the complex relations between migrations and ecological change require further inquiry within the field.

Since the United Nations Environment Programme’s recognition of environmental refugees as an official category in 1985, scholars from several disciplines have begun to look at the meaningful interconnections among climatic disruptions, ecological transformations, and migratory phenomena. As an example, a discipline that has contributed to the global debate is the growing subfield of Environmental History of Migration (EHM). Equally important is the proliferation of geographical and geopolitical studies addressing the relationship between contemporary migratory issues and political upheavals as a reaction to pressing environmental issues, such as in the cases of the Arab Spring and the Central American Farmers. Finally, both literary ecocriticism and ecolinguistics are pursuing original avenues of research that explore  popular narratives problematizing migrations in a changing eco-biosphere.

For its next issue, JAm It! aims to address this research gap, encouraging contributions that discuss environmental migrations from/to/within North America, both in the past and in the present. Potential contributors are invited to submit research informed by diverse disciplinary perspectives and different methodological lenses. Contributions from any disciplinary field should aim to unveil and highlight new approaches to this topic, which continues to sparkle debate and controversy in contemporary North American politics.

Interested scholars should submit a 500-word abstract and brief academic bio to journal@aisna-graduates.online by October 15, 2019. In case of acceptance, essays of no more than 8,000 words will be due by January 1, 2020. Possible areas of inquiry include:

• Historical studies addressing the relation between migration and ecological change, in both rural and urban North American contexts, through the methodological tools of environmental history.
• Geographical and geopolitical perspectives addressing the complex relation between migrations and climate change in the Americas.
• The linguistic representation of climate-induced/environmental migrations in the U.S. context, as represented by the (social) media or in politics.
• Political studies addressing the relationship between environmental migrations and domestic security issues, such as in the case of Todd Miller’s Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (2017).
• Contributions to the field of Indigenous Environmental Studies.
• Critical pedagogy of place and its relevance in higher education.
• Fictional representations of climate change and its impact on social and political dynamics.
• New approaches and methodologies in EHM research, stemming from the work of Marco Armiero and Richard Tucker in Environmental History of Modern Migrations (2017).
• Narrative strategies for the representation of climate anxieties and/or environmental disasters in literature, film, and television.
• Migration literature specifically related to environmental issues.

About Us

JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy is an annual, peer-reviewed journal of American Studies created by Ph.D. students and early-stage researchers. We publish academic articles, book reviews, and creative writing, favoring innovative approaches and contributions. We aspire to be an inclusive and eclectic journal – a hub of intellectual exchanges on a wide range of critical approaches to the field of American Studies. Our thematic section is periodically open to submissions via CFPs. We accept unsolicited submissions (in the form of essays, reviews, and creative writing) for all other sections of the journal.