Call for Contributions: Virtual Encyclopedia & TRAFO-Blog

Call for Contributions: Methodological innovations and alternative formats of knowledge production and circulation in Peace and Conflict Studies

The research network "Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict Studies", the Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) and the Forum Transregionale Studien open the call for contributions for the Virtual Encyclopaedia on Peace and Conflict Studies and the TRAFO ‒ Blog for Transregional Research, with a thematic focus on methodological innovations and alternative formats of knowledge production and circulation. 

The call is aimed at researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, activists, social movements, collectives, artists, and professionals from and/or based in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. Contributions of individual or collective authorship related to the theme of the call are welcome. Five contributions will be selected from the submitted proposals.

Background

Despite their growing diversity in theoretical and methodological approaches, peace and conflict studies remain marked by their colonial roots and trajectory. Critical views, including those inspired by postcolonial theory and decolonial thought, have pointed out that the epistemological and ontological bases of theory and practice in the field are underpinned by Eurocentric and Western assumptions rooted in colonial power structures. This constitutes a fundamental problem that not only limits and often distorts the understanding of peace, conflict and violence, but also contributes to the reproduction of the structures that underlie different forms of violence and exclusion. A central feature of coloniality in the field is manifested in the marginalisation of non-Western and indigenous epistemologies and worldviews in the dominant dynamics of knowledge production.

Against this backdrop, the Virtual Encyclopaedia is an open access platform offering an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical and conceptual debates, empirical analyses and reflections on methods and knowledge production in peace and conflict studies from critical approaches. Rather than univocal and generalising definitions, the Virtual Encyclopaedia seeks to provide readers with the necessary tools to critically approach peace and conflict studies. Based on a commitment to the critique of coloniality of knowledge and its effects on Peace and Conflict Studies, the Virtual Encyclopaedia seeks to challenge epistemic hierarchies and inequalities through the promotion and inclusion of multiple and diverse voices (in terms of disciplines, regions and professional stages) and plural perspectives, as well as the promotion of cooperative networks.

The TRAFO ‒ Blog serves as a discussion, information and publication platform for scholars, who are interested in transregional research and exchange. It presents questions, viewpoints and preliminary results of contemporary research and inquiry on specific issues from and on different areas and disciplines in a transregional framework. TRAFO is an acronym for “Transregionale Forschung”, but has also another meaning in German: a “Trafo” is a transformer station, alluding to the translation work and mediation function of the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Foundation, which have been jointly issuing the TRAFO ‒ Blog since 2013.

All requirements, more information on contribution requirements, and benefits in the PDF: