Hi all, Please consider submitting an abstract for a special issue of *Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy* that my colleague, Douglas Walls, and I are editing. The special issue will be published in May 2015 and will focus on social media and writing. We're asking for initial abstracts by January 1, 2014, with notification of acceptance in the special issue by January 8, 2014. If you'd like to chat briefly about preliminary ideas, I'd be happy to email or Skype with you as well. The full call for webtexts can be found at https://ucf.academia.edu/StephanieVie/Call-for-Webtexts and also I have copied and pasted it below. Thanks, Stephanie ----- Dr. Stephanie Vie Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Department of Writing and Rhetoric University of Central Florida Reviews Co-Editor, *Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy* *Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy *May 2015 special issue *Because Facebook: Digital Rhetoric/Social Media* Guest Editors: Stephanie Vie and Douglas Walls (both of University of Central Florida) *Special Issue Theme* This special issue focuses on the production and circulation of texts within social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. While the title, “Because Facebook: Digital Rhetoric/Social Media,” is a play on the recent spread of “because” as a preposition in the English language, we welcome webtexts, interviews, and book reviews that focus on any aspect of digital rhetoric, writing, and social media. Beyond Facebook and other current social networking spaces, we would also encourage examinations of other social media like Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc., along with theoretical approaches to literate practice such as the use of hashtags as an organizational schema, the role of tagging in Facebook as a means of communal affiliation, the curation of Pinterest categories as a repository of research materials, and so on. Writing in social media is both timely and exciting, and this special issue as a call for additional scholarly attention to the intersections of writing studies and social media tools. Indeed, in an age of nearly ubiquitous social media use, it is important for us to pay academic attention to these technologies with a specific eye toward the copious amounts of writing that are composed, circulated, and read in social media. Thus, this special issue will gather webtexts that attend to writing in social media: its production, circulation, presentation, and pedagogical applications. The special issue will be a curated series of webtexts that examine how writing is both facilitated by social media and influenced by the affordances and constraints of social media technologies. *Call for Webtexts (CFW)* We invite born-digital webtexts that explore the intersections of social media and writing in higher education. The guest editors imagine social media broadly and encourage pieces that examine specific social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., within theoretical frameworks as well as pieces that look at writing within larger social media categories, such as micro-blogging, social networking, etc. We invite authors to organize their webtexts as appropriate for one of the following four sections: *Topoi*: *Kairos*’ Topoi section includes extended scholarly analyses of large-scale issues relating to rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy. We encourage webtexts for the Topoi section of this special issue to examine social media writing within specific theoretical frameworks. We see this section as likely addressing specific large-scale implications (such as gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity, group affiliation, identity politics, privacy and surveillance, and data mining) that emerge when writing happens in these spheres. *Praxis*: *Kairos*’ Praxis section publishes scholarly investigations into the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy with an emphasis on what happens in the writing/rhetoric classroom and why. Webtexts should showcase how writing is informed by emerging technologies foregrounding practical aspects (i.e., how would one use the technique being described? Who might benefit from following the author's approach and why?) while providing a theoretical grounding. The editors see this section as focusing overtly on social media and pedagogy: How are social media shaping and being shaped by educational issues related to writing studies? We encourage webtexts that concentrate on specific social media technologies (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.) along with theoretical approaches to literate practice such as the use of hashtags as an organizational schema, the role of tagging in Facebook as a means of communal affiliation, the curation of Pinterest categories as a repository of research materials, and so on. *Interviews*: We encourage interviews with authors who regularly write about social media technologies, use social media in their classrooms, and/or develop and maintain social media technologies. We also encourage interviews that move beyond the borders of writing and rhetoric to seek out interdisciplinary interviews with scholars from other fields who do exciting work with social media. Finally, we see the Interviews section as a place for more experimental approaches to “the interview,” such as an interview with scholars on the creation of their personal profiles in Facebook, the maintenance of their identities across multiple social media, or an examination of their network of friends, for example. Informal queries before a formal proposal are welcome. *Book Reviews*: The guest editors seek reviews of the following books and welcome queries for reviews of other recent books that focus on social media and writing in higher education. Webtexts that engage with multiple books as a review essay are welcomed. *Facebook and Philosophy: What’s on Your Mind?* (Chicago, 2010) *Intimacy and Friendship on Facebook* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) *Social Communication in the Twitter Age* (Polity, 2013) *Social Media: Usage and Impact *(Lexington, 2012) *The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media *(Oxford, 2012) *Twitter: Social Communication in the Digital Age *(Polity Press, 2013) *Understanding Social Media* (Sage, 2013) *Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings *(Oxford, 2012) Contributors are encouraged to consider the following possible topics (this list is not exhaustive): - Digital divide and technological access issues for faculty, students, and/or community stakeholders who use social media - End-User Licensing Agreements, Terms of Service, copyright law, and other legal frameworks affecting writing in social media - Faculty professionalization and program-building efforts using social media - Gender issues and group dynamics in pedagogical uses of social media - Issues of identity, anonymity, and pseudonymity when writing in social media - Literacy practices and communal norms about writing in social media spaces - Online monitoring and data-based metrics of students and instruction in social media spaces - Pedagogical possibilities for social media in the writing classroom - Pedagogical resistance to social media in the writing classroom - Privacy and surveillance within social media spaces - Professional writing and social media - Resistance and opting out of social media - Service-learning and community-based research efforts in the community facilitated by social media - Social media, writing, and the public sphere - Student writing produced outside of class in social media contexts - The challenges of citing and archiving social media in research projects - The rhetoric of listening and following in social media - The role of social media in changing citation practices - Writing About Writing (WAW) curricula and the impact of writing about socially mediated writing - Writing pedagogy in participatory social media spaces Please send abstracts of 350-500 words to Stephanie Vie ( Stephanie.Vie@ucf.edu) and Douglas Walls (Douglas.Walls@ucf.edu) by January 1, 2014. Submissions should include all authors’ contact information and a brief design statement (50-100 words) or design prototype for all proposed authors. Your brief design statement should describe any previous experience composing web-ready or born-digital pieces as well as initial ideas for your webtext—its look and feel, technologies to be used in composing, etc. Initial queries are welcome. Authors will be invited to submit full webtext drafts by February 15, 2014. *Timeline*: - Deadline for abstracts: January 1, 2014 - Notification of acceptance to authors: January 8, 2014 - Deadline for first draft of accepted webtexts: February 15, 2014 - Editors’ feedback on first drafts: March 15, 2014 - Deadline for second draft of accepted webtexts: May 1, 2014 - Editors’ feedback on second drafts: July 15, 2014 - Deadline for final revised webtexts: December 1, 2014 - Special issue is released: May 2015