Aims & Scope
Lagoonscapes. The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities is a digital, open-access, international, and trans-disciplinary journal based at The New Institute Center for Environmental Humanities of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Lagoonscapes welcomes submissions from all the core disciplines of the Environmental Humanities, including literary and media studies, critical theory, visual arts, environmental and cultural history, political theory, and anthropology. Contributions are subject to a double-blind peer review process and are published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. The journal aims to promote a cross-disciplinary dialogue on contemporary and historical environmental issues, investigating relationships with non-human forms of life and the natural world from decolonial, feminist, and activist perspectives. Venice and its lagoon are a privileged location for sensing and interrogating the effects of human activity and climate change regarding the biological, cultural, and social dynamics of local ecosystems. The journal is associated with the pioneering Master in Environmental Humanities offered by Ca’ Foscari University and it aspires to become an international platform for scholars, artists, and activists to engage with the growing field of the Environmental Humanities.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/ZKwIUroQ | e-ISSN 2785-2709 | Periodicity biannual | Language en
Copyright This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Latest published issue
This issue offers a selection of contributions by esteemed authors from the most diverse universities and institutes known for their work and commitment in Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, An-imal studies, Blue Sciences, Ethno-Ecology. Alongside them, a great space in this volume has been dedicated to the pioneering, experimental and creative work of younger researchers and postgradu-ates. We therefore propose a long journey through the literature and recent brilliant narratives com-ing from Africa and India, corroborated by exploratory and ethnographic scientific investigations at the ‘edge of the world’, from the distant islands of Scotland (St Kilda) to the Himalayan ridge (Sikkim). A series of Italian case studies document paradoxes and problems of the Sicilian land-scape, of feral tourism in Venice, and of the environmental policies of the lagoons in the Po River Del-ta. A renewed session dedicated to interviews, artistic performance and aesthetics enriches the final part of this volume. Through amazing productions from Australia, India, Italy, Estonia, the artist and the performer present themselves as a new sort of eco-political agents and mediators, in the attempt to process the traumatic anthropogenic ecological disaster and to reintegrate the individual into the living planet.
Swimming Against the Tide
Dec. 22, 2023
Framing Environments in Russia: Critical Reflections on Ecology, Culture and Power
Sept. 4, 2023
Arboreal Ecocriticism
Dec. 15, 2022
Humanities, Ecocriticism and Multispecies Relations. Proceedings (part II)
July 27, 2022
Humanities, Ecocriticism and Multispecies Relations. Proceedings (part I)
Dec. 21, 2021
Thinking the Planet with Venice
Dec. 20, 2021
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The article processing charges are regulated by the Publisher. For more information please visit: Publish with us.
Every article published by ECF was accepted for publication by no less than two qualified reviewers as a result of a process of anonymous reviewing (double-blind peer review). The reviewers are independent of the authors and not affiliated with the same institution.
The Journal’s Editor-in-Chief guarantees the proper execution of the peer review process for every article published in the Journal.
Peer review policies for the different sections:
To be published all manuscripts must comply with the following guidelines. In case of blatant violation of the guidelines, the editor (ECF) can suspend at any time the manuscript’s publication.
The instructions for the preparation of your manuscript, its abstract and its bibliography, are an integral part of the requirements for the manuscript submission. They are downloadable from the menu ‘Publish with us’ at the item ‘Editorial Guidelines’.
To find out more, please contact Edizioni Ca’ Foscari’s editorial staff at ecf@unive.it.
CALL FOR PAPERS: Lagoonscapes 4 | 2 | 2024
Special Issue’s Title: Ecologies of Life and Death in the Anthropocene
Guest editors: Professor Peggy Karpouzou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece & Dr. Nikoleta Zampaki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Both life and death are natural states of humans and non-humans, coexisting and at the same time in an implicit ‘conflict’. The perception and mostly the experiences of death have varied through different local communities historically, often aiming to explain death through philosophical or religious interpretations of human and non-humans’ afterlife (e.g. Merchant 1979).
In the present condition of a precarious planetary time when environmental crises, wars, violence and pandemics are before us, entire ecosystems are annihilated or even destroyed. Human and more-than-human world’s vulnerabilities get amplified as death and loss become urgent environmental concerns, manifested in many cultural connotations, e.g. literary, artistic, philosophical etc., seeking to explore and explain death matter in nature as well as the consequences of death on species’ behavior and psychology. “It is about recognizing our shared vulnerabilities to human and non-human bodies, and embracing our complicity in the death of these other bodies- however painful that process may be” (Cunsolo 2017, 3-4).
Writers and artists have explored the representations of death matters beyond the human, the mourning for past, present and future ecological loss (Barnett 2022), while attempting to visualize and express ecological grief, mourning and melancholia, carve out memorial spaces and also imagine practices of the afterlife. For example, in literature, the poetic subgenre of elegy found as (anti-)pastoral elegy, eco-elegy or “ecological lament” (Morton 2009) is built on the poet’s acceptance of “death as natural […], in line with the season pattern and rebirth” (Twiddy 2012). Here death is not only synonymous with a biological end, but a rebirth, a state of a new being. However, the loss of nature itself, turning it into a ‘mirror’ of human loss, redefines the traditional elegy’s search for consolation (Sacks 1987).
Grounded in the theoretical framework of death studies, this special issue explores life and death eco-imaginaries and engagements, as they are interwoven through the study of the human and more-than-human world. It is there where an ontology of ecologies of life and death is being exposed and where the ethical territories of eco-grief and eco-mourning unfold. Therefore, the possibility of studying the ecology of life and death is questioned: How do we come up with death issues in nature? Is nature grievable? How do we mourn for it? How about the circular and linear way between life and death in nature’s spatiality and time? How about writers and artists’ perception of ecologies of life and death and how are they represented in texts and artworks? How do ecologies of life and death affect the way of writing or artistic outcome? How about the posthuman perspective on dead bodies and afterlife issues? What will it mean to live and die in the Anthropocene? (e.g., Scranton, 2016; Stiegler 2018).
While the ecologies of life and death give way to ‘decentralize’, even ‘deconstruct’ concepts like melancholy, grief and mourning, also ‘view’ the last ones as an approach of resilience and symbiosis between them, even a ‘spur’ to act. In this sense, there is a need to re-organize what is holding humanity back, such as the fear of humans' destructive power, and take action to achieve life’s preservation in order to build sustainable futures. We particularly welcome submissions that revolve around, but are not limited to, the following axes and concepts:
Deadline for full articles’ submissions: Kindly submit a full article of no more than 50,000 characters (spaces and references included), an abstract of no more than 650 characters spaces included, and at least five keywords by 31 of July 2024 at the latest.
Should your article be accepted for inclusion in the upcoming December issue, you will receive an email containing instructions on how to upload your final version within 15 days from receipt. Such articles must be suitable for blind peer review.
Please make sure to obtain the necessary reproduction rights documentation if you need to include photos in your text.
Articles must be written in English. In case you have further queries, you are welcome to send an e-mail to the Editors’ e-mails: pkarpouzou@phil.uoa.gr and nikzamp@phil.uoa.gr.
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https://ecfpeerflow.unive.it/abstracts/form/journal/25/324
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CALL FOR PAPERS: Lagoonscapes 4 | 1 | 2024
Guest editors: selection in progress
Deadline for article submissions: March 1, 2024
Lagoonscapes. The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities is an international, digital, open access, peer-reviewed, trans-disciplinary, biannual publication written in English. Housed within The New Institute Center for Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the journal is published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari (ECF).
For the first issue of 2024, Lagoonscapes invites submissions that support its aim to spark and deepen cross-disciplinary dialogue on a multitude of environmental issues via perspectives that investigate relations across human as well as more-than-human dimensions. Lagoonscapes welcomes not only academic scholars but also artists, activists and writers who engage with the trans-disciplinary discourse of the Environmental Humanities. The Journal welcomes the submission of visual artwork, ranging from photography to illustration, and alternative writing practices, in addition to essays, that elucidate human and/or more-than-human relationships with the environment.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
DEADLINES
Article submission: March 1, 2024
Please submit your abstract (no more than 350 words), article (no more than 6,000 words including abstract and bibliography), and short bio using the link below by 1 March 2024. Articles must be written in English.
We encourage proposals that emphasize expansive thinking about the topic and from scholars, authors and artists at all stages of their careers.
Instructions for authors can be consulted on the journal’s website: ‘Editorial Guidelines’.
Submissions must be suitable for blind review.
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Ethical Code of Lagoonscapes. The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities
Lagoonscapes. The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities is a peer-reviewed scientific journal whose policy is inspired by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Ethical Code. See the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Publisher’s responsibilities
The Publisher must provide the Journal with adequate resources and the guidance of experts, in order to carry out its role in the most professional way, aiming at the highest quality standard.
The Publisher must have a written agreement that defines the relationship with the owner of the Journal and/or the Editor-in-Chief. The agreement must comply with the Code of Behavior for Publishers of Scientific Journals, as established by COPE.
The relationship among the Editor-in-Chief, the Advisory Board and the Publisher is based on the principle of publishing independence.
Editors’ responsibilities
The Editor-in-Chief and the Advisory Board of Lagoonscapes alone are responsible for the decision to publish the articles submitted.
Submitted articles, after having been checked for plagiarism by means of the anti-plagiarism software Compilatio that is used by the University and is made available to us, will be sent to at least two reviewers. Final acceptance presumes the implementation of possible amendments, as required by the reviewers and under the supervision of the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief.
The Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief and Advisory Board must evaluate each submitted paper in compliance with the Journalʼs policy, i.e. exclusively on the basis of its scientific content, without discrimination of race, sex, gender, creed, ethnic origin, citizenship, or the scientific, academic and political position of the Authors.
Allegations of misconduct
If the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief and Advisory Board notice (or receive notifications of) mistakes or inaccuracies, conflict of interest or plagiarism in a published article, they will immediately warn the Author and the Publisher and will undertake the necessary actions to resolve the issue. They will do their best to correct the published content whenever they are informed that it contains scientific errors or that the authors have committed unethical or illegal acts in connection with their published work. If necessary, they will withdraw the article or publish a recantation.
All complaints are handled in accordance with the guidelines published by the COPE.
Concerns and complaints must be addressed to the following e-mail ecf_support@unive.it. The letter should contain the following information:
Authors’ responsibilities
Stylesheet
Authors must follow the Guidelines for Authors to be downloaded from the Lagoonscapes website.
Authors must explicitly state that their work is original in all its parts and that the submitted paper has not been previously published, nor submitted to other journals, until the entire evaluation process is completed. Since no paper gets published without significant revision, earlier dissemination in conference proceedings or working papers does not preclude consideration for publication, but Authors are expected to fully disclose publication/dissemination of the material in other closely related publications, so that the overlap can be evaluated by the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief.
Authorship
Authors are strongly encouraged to use their ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This will ensure the authors’ visibility and correct citation of their work.
Authorship must be correctly attributed; all those who have given a substantial contribution to the design, organisation and accomplishment of the research the article is based on, must be indicated as Co-Authors. Please ensure that: the order of the author names is correct; the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that affiliations are up-to-date.
The respective roles of each co-author should be described in a footnote. The statement that all authors have approved the final version should be included in the disclosure.
Conflicts of interest and financing
Authors, under their own responsibility, must avoid any conflict of interest affecting the results obtained or the interpretations suggested. The Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief will give serious and careful consideration to suggestions of cases in which, due to possible conflict of interest, an Author’s work should not be reviewed by a specific scholar. Authors should indicate any financing agency or the project the article stems from.
Quotations
Authors must see to it that all works consulted be properly quoted. If works or words of others are used, they have to be properly paraphrased or duly quoted. Quotations between “double quotes” (or «angled quotation marks» if the text is written in a language other than English) must reproduce the exact wording of the source; under their own responsibility, Authors should carefully refrain from disguising a restyling of the source’s wording, as though it was the original formulation.
Any form of excessive, inappropriate or unnecessary self-citation, as well as any other form of citation manipulation, are strongly discouraged.
Ethical Committee
Whenever required, the research protocols must be authorised in advance by the Ethical Committee of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Emendations
When Authors find a mistake or an inaccuracy in their own article, they must immediately warn the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief, providing all the information needed to make the due adjustments.
Reviewers’ responsibilities
Goal
By means of the peer-review procedure, reviewers assist the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief and Advisory Board in taking decisions on the articles submitted. They are expected to offer the Authors suggestions as to possible adjustments aimed at improving their contribution submission.
Timing and conflicts of interest
If a reviewer does not feel up to the task of doing a given review, or if she/he is unable to read the work within the agreed schedule, she/he should notify the Lagoonscapes Editor-in-Chief. Reviewers must not accept articles for which there is a conflict of interest due to previous contributions or to a competition with a disclosed author (or with an author they believe to have identified).
Confidentiality
The content of the reviewed work must be considered confidential and must not be used without explicit authorisation by the Author, who is to be contacted via the editor-in-chief. Any confidential information obtained during the peer review process should not be used for other purposes.
Collaborative attitude
Reviewers should see themselves not as adversaries but as advocates for the field. Any comment must be done in a collaborative way and from an objective point of view. Reviewers should clearly motivate their comments and keep in mind the Golden Rule of Reviewing: “Review for others as you would have others review for you”.
Plagiarism
Reviewers should report any similarity or overlapping of the work under analysis with other works known to them.
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