CFP: Critical Code Studies, Digital Humanities Quarterly

Digital Humanities Quarterly will publish a special issue on Critical Code Studies, guest edited by Mark C. Marino (USC) and Jeremy Douglass (UC Santa Barbara).

From the call for proposals:

This special issue of Digital Humanities Quarterly will bring together essays and case studies on the promises and limitations of critical code studies from historical, practical, and theoretical perspectives, as well as within the context of specific research projects and their environments, professional contexts, and arts practice.

Critical code studies is the application of hermeneutics from the humanities to the interpretation of the extra-functional significance of computer source code. “Extra” means “growing out from” rather than “outside of.” Critical code studies readings explore technosocial culture through the entry point of computer source code.

In this issue we will strive for equity in gender, race and ethnicity both in the authorship of articles and the authorship of the code being examined.

A range of topics are encouraged, including:

• Accessibility
• Algorithmic Accountability
• Critical algorithm studies
• Critical race theory
• Ecological impact
• Electronic literature
• Ethics
• Ethnoprogramming
• Feminisms
• Game studies
• Indigenous programming
• Media archaeology
• Natural language processing
• Platform studies
• Postcolonialism
• Queer theory
• Rhetorical code studies
• Software studies

Intersectional applications of multiple approaches will be encouraged. Objects of study may be code snippets, codework, or larger software but also programming paradigms, languages, and communities.

Please submit abstracts (max. 500 words) to markcmarino@gmail.com and jeremydouglass@gmail.com by Nov. 15, 2020 for a first round of review. Early inquiries are encouraged. Full-length articles (~4,000-8,000 words) and case studies (~2500 words)should be submitted by March 1, 2021.