Call for Chapters: Edited book on self-injury as communication, under contract with Lexington Books (Lexington Studies in Health Communication).

Call for Chapters: Edited book on self-injury as communication, under contract with Lexington Books (Lexington Studies in Health Communication).

Introduction

Self-injury is typically defined as the deliberate harming of one’s body without suicidal intent. Common forms of self-injury include cutting, burning, and bruising as a means of anxiety and stress reduction and avoidance.

The purpose of this book is to explore the communicative dimensions of self-injury: What messages, if any, are implied in the process and outcome of self-injury? What does self-injury say that words and other forms of communication can’t express? How do self-injurers communicate about their behaviors? What roles do social and mass media play in representing self-injury? How can healthcare professionals effectively communicate with self-injurers? How do communicative dimensions of self-injury vary across cultural settings?

The target audience for this book includes communication scholars whose interests include communication, culture, and the body as well as healthcare practitioners and other professionals who work with self-injurers on a day-to-day basis.

Because self-injury is often linked with adolescent girls and young women, chapters addressing self-injury among boys, young men, and adults of both genders are also especially welcome. Also, forms of self-injury outside of the typical case studies involving cutting, scraping, and bruising would also be particularly valuable additions.

Theory and Methodology

All chapters should clearly evidence communication as the central conceptual principle, applying one or more communication theories with respect to original data not published elsewhere. Data and analytical methods may be qualitative in approach, quantitative, or a combination of both. Chapters written by single authors are preferable, but chapters written by teams of two consisting of a theorist and a medical practitioner are also welcome.

Sections

Sections of the book are tentatively conceived as:

Section 1: In what ways is self-injury a form of communication, and what is being communicated?

Section 2: How do self-injurers communicate about self-injury?

Section 3: How does the self-injury/communication nexus vary across and within cultures?

Section 4: What roles do social media and mass media play in representing self-injury?

Section 5: What are best methods for communicating with self-injurers?

Timeline:

-       June 20: Abstracts should be submitted for consideration. Abstracts should be approximately 500 words, specifically addressing how the chapter will examine self-injury as communication. Abstracts should also describe the communication theory(ies) used, original data, and methodology. Each author should also include a CV of no more than two pages.

-       July 7: Initial reviews will be completed. Authors whose work is selected will be asked to submit a full chapter for further consideration.

-       August 30: Full chapters should be submitted for second reviews.

-       October 30: Second review process to be completed and authors notified.

-       November 30: Revised chapters due.

Send all inquiries to

Warren Bareiss, PhD

Associate Professor of Communication

University of South Carolina Upstate

wbareiss@uscupstate.edu