Call for papers: Are Anti-Racism Efforts Having an Impact in Organizations and Communities?

The COVID pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the racial justice movements have highlighted the need to address systems of oppression that continue to disadvantage and harm communities of color. There has been an increase in awareness and commitment across organizations and institutions to adopt anti-racist strategies to dismantle systems and create a more just and equitable society. What impact are these efforts having within and across organizations? How can these efforts be studied, measured, and assessed?

While scholarship and research have demonstrated the ways racism continues to operate in our society, this special issue will highlight how organizations (e.g. education, corporate, nonprofit) and groups (e.g. community organizers) have come to understand systemic racism, how they track and measure the impact of racism, and what innovative interventions hold promise in reducing and eliminating racism across systems.

The editors invite proposals for submissions from scholars from all fields and disciplines. We seek proposals that:

• Showcase innovative anti-racist interventions across industries and geographic locations AND demonstrate innovative tools to measure the impact
• Discuss the intersections of anti-racism (e.g. efforts towards addressing sexism, classism) and how to leverage and join forces to measure and track progress
• Report on the challenges and best practices for centering the voices of communities of color and engaging them in naming the outcomes of anti-racist efforts
• Offer innovative tools and methods to track and report on the progress of anti-racist policies and practices

We encourage proposals co-authored by practitioners and scholars, from emerging/early career scholars and from scholars of color.

While diversity and anti-racism scholarship is widely acknowledged to be critical for the future of our society, scholars continue to find evidence of academic and publication cultures and structures devaluing their work. Groups such as emerging scholars, non-tenured scholars, and scholars of color continue to undertake institutional and personal risk to advance anti-racist research and institutional work (e.g. designing anti-racist training). We hope to highlight the scholarship and work of these individuals and move towards anti-racist publishing and academic policies and practices.

We welcome you to learn more about how scholars have informed efforts to dismantle systemic racism: Watch our webinar on Anti-Racism Research and Scholarship for Action and learn about the Anti-Racism Collaborative at the University of Michigan.

Scholars interested in submitting an article to the special issue should submit a letter of intent by June 1, 2022 through the journal’s electronic submission.

Before submitting your letter of intent, please review the instructions for authors. The letter of intent (two-page single space maximum) should include a title, authors and affiliations, and provide a detailed description of the proposed manuscript and how it would fit into the special issue.

If invited to submit a full manuscript, the submission due date is January 31, 2023. Manuscripts must be prepared according to the writing and submission guidelines.

For further questions regarding this special issue please contact the managing editor, Laura Sánchez-Parkinson at [email protected]