FYI.

Call for Proposals: Special Issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society

Issue topic: The spatiality of  fatness

Guest Editor: Caché Owens-Velásquez, University of New Hampshire.

Email: cache.owens@unh.edu

Deadline for 250-500 word proposals: August 31, 2000

This special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society will analyze the spatiality of fatness. This special issue focuses on the intersections of space/place and fatness. Submissions would analyze fatness through the lens of physical space, applying geographic thought to critically examine how fatness is treated across spatial contexts. Examinations of fat geographies have largely focused on the relationship between the built environment and the “obesity epidemic”. Conversely, this special issue is interested in studying the characteristics and evolution of spaces that result in the creation of fat friendly or fat hostile spaces through the normative lens of fat liberation. Papers in this special issue could borrow from literature in place-making, urban planning, spatial justice, public transportation, hospitality, business, and other disciplines.

This special issue invites papers that address the concept of the spatiality of fatness. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Experiences of fatness across nations
• Fat positive urban design and planning
• Intersections of fat activism and spatial justice
• Useful methodologies for examining fatness through a spatial lens
• Theoretical frameworks related to geography of fatness
• Critical reflections on space and place constructions and their impact on fat bodies

To submit a proposal for inclusion in this special issue of the journal, please send a 250-500 word summary of your article as well as a current CV to Caché Owens-Velasquez, at cache.owens@unh.edu by August 31, 2020. Any questions about the special issue can be directed to this email address as well.

Fat Studies is the first academic journal in the field of scholarship that critically examines theory, research, practices, and programs related to body weight and appearance. Content includes original research and overviews exploring the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Articles critically examine representations of fat in health and medical sciences, the Health at Every Size model, the pharmaceutical industry, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, legal issues, literature, pedagogy, art, theater, popular culture, media studies, and activism.

Fat Studies is an interdisciplinary, international field of scholarship that critically examines societal attitudes and practices about body weight and appearance. Fat Studies advocates equality for all people regardless of body size. It explores the way fat people are oppressed, the reasons why, who benefits from that oppression and how to liberate fat people from oppression. Fat Studies seeks to challenge and remove the negative associations that society has about fat and the fat body. It regards weight, like height, as a human characteristic that varies widely across any population. Fat Studies is similar to academic disciplines that focus on race, ethnicity, gender, or age.

FYI.

Call for Proposals: Special Issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society

Issue topic:FAT AND FAT STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Guest Editor: Dr Thea Werkhoven – University of Sydney (Australia), thea.werkhoven@sydney.edu.au

500-word summary due by August 31, 2000 

This special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society will examine health and weight related pedagogy in higher education. Specifically, how degrees and courses for future health educators and health professionals approach education on weight, health and working towards unbiased professional practice after graduation.

Research has shown that students in higher education institutions enrolled in health related degrees designed to funnel them into health professions, allied health or health education may possess weight bias towards fat individuals and fatness itself. The future professionalism and style of service provided to clients/patients/students may in turn be jeopardized by these attitudes, resulting in fat individuals being treated more poorly than people the professional does not view as being fat. The flow on effects for the multifaceted wellbeing of the affected individual are plentiful.

This special issue invites contributions across a range of disciplines, methodological and theoretical frameworks within fat studies that have investigated or tested interventions in the field of weight bias in higher education. Papers that have implemented an experimental research methodology are particularly welcomed, as are those that have utilised or compared a holistic approach to education like Health At Every Size to more biomedical approaches to education which are weight-centric.

Potential topics might include but are not limited to:

• Degree structure and accreditation for discipline specific health professionals
• How higher education prepares future health professionals for unbiased practice
• Advancements in fat studies or fat pedagogy in higher education
• Health at Every Size and the separation or integration with biomedical approaches to health education in colleges and/or universities
• Novel interventions to decrease weight bias in pre-service health professionals, health educators or clinicians.
• Factors that influence weight bias in future health professionals, health educators or clinicians during their studies
• Role modelling of instructors and higher educators teaching fat studies
• Can fat educators teach fat studies and reduce weight bias
• Policy analysis of professional requirements for each discipline to practice in an inclusive and unbiased way, relevant to fatness
• Policy analysis of national +/- government endorsed approaches to weight-specific health care

To submit a proposal for inclusion in this special issue of the journal, please send a 250-500 word summary of your article to Thea Werkhoven (thea.werkhoven@sydney.edu.au) by 31st August 2020. Any questions about the special issue can be directed to this email address as well.

Fat Studies is the first academic journal in the field of scholarship that critically examines theory, research, practices, and programs related to body weight and appearance. Content includes original research and overviews exploring the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Articles critically examine representations of fat in health and medical sciences, the Health at Every Size model, the pharmaceutical industry, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, legal issues, literature, pedagogy, art, theater, popular culture, media studies, and activism.

Fat Studies is an interdisciplinary, international field of scholarship that critically examines societal attitudes and practices about body weight and appearance. Fat Studies advocates equality for all people regardless of body size. It explores the way fat people are oppressed, the reasons why, who benefits from that oppression and how to liberate fat people from oppression. Fat Studies seeks to challenge and remove the negative associations that society has about fat and the fat body. It regards weight, like height, as a human characteristic that varies widely across any population. Fat Studies is similar to academic disciplines that focus on race, ethnicity, gender, or age.

FYI.

Call for Proposals: Special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society on Fat Kinship

Guest editor: Cindy Baker,  cnbaker@ualberta.ca

To be considered for inclusion in this special issue, please send a 200-250 word abstract and a current CV to Cindy Baker, cnbaker@ualberta.ca  by August 31, 2020.  Any questions about the topic can also be directed to Cindy Baker at this e-mail address.

This special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society explores fatness in relationships.

Though fat people occupy the same diversity of roles within their lives relative to their relationships as other humans do (child, parent, sibling, family member, partner, friend, etc), representations of fatness in popular culture are often one-dimensional, focusing on the lonely single fat figure or the fat mother/surrogate nurturing character. Real life fat relationships, however, are both broadly diverse and complicated by their fatness. Fat kinship is a fertile ground, and deserves an increased focus through an academic lens.

I invite papers on a variety of topics around a broad definition of fat kinship including intimate relationships, genetic bonds, friendship, nuclear family, extended family, chosen family, and more. Artistic research-creation welcome.

Topics that might be covered include:

• Fat intimacy
• Fat domesticity
• Fat family life
• Solo fat life
• Fat couples
• Fat polyamory
• Fat/non-fat relationships
• Representations of fat relationships in popular culture
• Conflation of fatness and nurturing
• The impact of self-isolation on fat people and fat bodies
• Private fat spaces; alternative definitions of “home”
• How fat people build/adapt family and community

Fat Studies is the first academic journal in the field of scholarship that critically examines theory, research, practices, and programs related to body weight and appearance. Content includes original research and overviews exploring the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Articles critically examine representations of fat in health and medical sciences, the Health at Every Size model, the pharmaceutical industry, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, legal issues, literature, pedagogy, art, theater, popular culture, media studies, and activism.