Ecopedagogies and Hispanic Studies: Knowledge and Skills for the Anthropocene

Deadline: December 17th, 2021
Contact: Gonzalo Baptista
Email: gonzalo.baptista@morgan.edu

Call For Papers
Ecopedagogies and Hispanic Studies: Knowledge and Skills for the Anthropocene
Revista de ALCES XXI. Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film
2023 Special Issue

While traditional pedagogies have contributed to what Rob Nixon has called the two defining crises of the 21st century: catastrophic climate change and widening global disparity, the emergence of critical pedagogies and environmental humanities has brought new ways for curricular innovation.
Conventional pedagogies–aimed at producing competitive entrepreneurs, highly trained specialists and consumers and predicated upon the “learned ignorance” (Prádanos) of ecological limits to growth–are severely limited in providing students with the skills needed to confront today’s unprecedented social and ecological challenges. Proponents of ecopedagogy call for greater awareness of complex networks of human, nonhumanand more-than-human connection, the “unlearning” of basic assumptions of growth-orientedsociety (Prádanos), collective and collaborative thinking, inquiry that transcends disciplinary boundaries and an embodied attentiveness to the places and communities we inhabit.
In this volume we explore ecopedagogies as not only the teaching of “environmental” content, but as forms of learning that meet contemporary challenges and provide the aforementioned skills. We ask, for example, how Hispanic literatures or Spanish for Specific Purposes courses can enhance students’ ecoliteracy (Kahn), allowing them to become Earth-centric leaders (Assadourian) and planetary citizens (Gutiérrez and Cruz Prado)?

Current ecocritical approaches to teaching draw from decolonial, ecofeminist and service learning pedagogies. How do these learning processes prepare new generations to act critically and collaboratively in our society? How do our class materials, courses, syllabi, departmental activities and institutional missions/visions provide students with skills to confront today’s unprecedented social and ecological challenges?

We agree with a number of scholars that signal the adoption of ecopedagogies and ecological literacy as a great opportunity to rethink the humanities and increase the relevance of foreign language education (Halberstam, Prádanos, Orr). We seek submissions that explore the opportunities and challenges of ecopedagogies in topics associated with Hispanic Studies and work focused on other Peninsular or Latin American Indigenous languages. Contributions might offer practical suggestions of courses, activities and departmental wide practices for incorporating ecological literacy and ecopedagogies in the classroom or essays on personal ecopedagogical experiences.
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To submit a proposal, please send a summary (250 words max) with full name, contact details and current institutional affiliation and a brief bibliography (1 page max) by December 17th, 2021.
Initial selection, based on the revision of proposals, will be confirmed by January 14th, 2021.
Note that the final acceptance of articles will be based on another revision of completed texts (due June 30th, 2022). Initial selection of the proposal does not guarantee acceptance of the article. For more information, please consult the editorial guidelines of ALCES XXI:
http://www.alcesxxi.org/home/revista/normas-de-publicacion/

Please send proposals to
Christine Martínez (christinemartinez@nyu.edu)
Gonzalo Baptista (gonzalo.baptista@morgan.edu)
Alberto López Martín (alberto.lopezmartin@valpo.edu)

Posted on September 24, 2021