Eastern Communication Association

07/23/2016

ECA 2017 - Call for Papers - Argumentation & Forensics Interest Group

Call for Papers

Argumentation & Forensics Interest Group
Eastern Communication Association
108^th Annual Convention

Boston, Massachusetts
March 29 - April 2, 2017

Freedom To … Freedom From

No city in the United States is associated more with the tensions inherent in the concept of <freedom> than Boston, the site of our 2017 convention.

Although the “Freedom Trail” that passes only twenty feet from the door of our convention hotel tells a story that Boston – and the United States – seeks simple <freedom>, its two endpoints show that <freedom> is no simple thing.

The Massachusetts State House on the southern end negotiates daily the tension between governmental regulation and individual liberties. The USS Constitution on the northern end embodies the nation’s history desire for freedom from foreign aggression through its freedom to use military force. The Boston Common was used as a grazing ground, where there was freedom from livestock fees, but also freedom to enact the tragedy of the commons. Boston was home to the first Liberty Tree, an elm near Boston Common that was a site where everyday people sought freedom from the Stamp Act in 1765 and where British soldiers enacted their freedom to make this tree an object of ridicule and a site of punishment. Samuel Adams preached revolutionary freedom from British taxes, even while his cousin John Adams argued that even British soldiers have the freedom to demand a fair trial. Boston’s Justice William Cushing ruled in 1781, that “all men are born free and equal” to demand that Bostonians of African descent be released from slavery, even as slaveholders and legislators sustained laws that that allowed the freedom to hold slaves until the end of the Civil War. Throughout the Civil War, the first Red Scare of the 1920s, the busing and desegregation struggles of the 1970s and 80s, and to today in dozens of other examples, Boston has been a place where <freedom> has been a contested ground.

Our presence in Boston invites us to consider how the tensions in <freedom> are also present in our discipline.

What does communication give us the <freedom> to do? What does it give us <freedom> from? What are the uses and abuses of free communication? When have others used their freedom to communicate to prevent freedom from other forces? And, when have we used the freedom to communicate to gain freedom from these forces?

These are the kinds of questions our papers, panels, short courses and other activities will explore at ECA’s 108^th Annual Convention.

Guidelines for Submitting Individual Papers

Individual submissions of complete papers should include the following elements:

1. A detachable title page with the title of the paper and the author’s affiliation, mailing address, telephone number and email **
2. The word “Debut” marked on all papers written by authors who have not presented previously at a regional or national convention
3. A one-page abstract on the second page
4. A statement of professional responsibility on the second page

** If the paper has multiple authors, please indicate who will be presenting at the convention.

Guidelines for Submitting Proposals for Panels or Special Programming

Submission of proposals for panels or special programming should include the following elements:

1. A thematic title for the program
2. Names of the chair and respondents (if any). Chairs should not also be designated as
3. Names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and institutional affiliations of all participants
4. Titles and abstracts for each paper or presentation
5. Program copy (no more than a 75-word description) as it should appear in the final program
6. A detailed rationale for the program/panel

7. A statement of professional responsibility

Statement of Professional Responsibility

The following statement MUST be included with every submission of a paper or panel in order for it to be eligible for review:

“In submitting the attached paper or proposal, I/We recognize that this submission is considered a professional responsibility. I/We agree to present this panel or paper if it is accepted and programmed. I/We further recognize that all who attend and present at ECA’s annual meeting must register and pay required fees.”

Submission Instructions and Deadline

Please send your submission via email as an attachment (in .docx format) no later than 11:59 pm PDT on Saturday, October 15, 2016, to Sean Luechtefeld, program planner for the Argumentation & Forensics Interest Group, at seanluechtefeld@gmail.com.