Walking-with Amsterdam: Reflections on Walking as Research Practice (WARP Conference special edition)

Call for papers

The WARP Research group in collaboration with Soapbox journalinvites all interested in walking as research practice to contribute to the upcoming publication ‘Walking-with Amsterdam: Reflections on Walking as Research Practice (WARP Conference special edition)’ edited by Soapbox and the WARP Conference organising team.

This publication comes after the Walking as a Research Practice (WARP) Conference, a two-day conference that brought together scholars from many different fields in the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts, as well as creative practitioners, for a transdisciplinary dialogue about the capacities of walking practices as research. With its emphasis on the body, the senses, placemaking and becoming, walking is inspired a critical rethinking of traditional methodologies and perspectives. 

Aiming to share and disseminate the results, reflections, collaborations, and outcomes born out of the Walking as Research Practice (WARP) Conference 2022 we invite all participants of the WARP Conference to submit a paper, and we also welcome contributions by non-presenting members of the conference. We also hope that members of the WARP Reading Group will feel motivated to contribute, as well as those in the wider walking as research community.   

We are currently looking to expand our team. Soapbox is a student-run journal focused on promoting voices that creatively engage with concepts and cultural objects in the broadest sense, through publishing academic, artistic, and interdisciplinary works. Soapbox is a collaborative effort in gaining experience and experimenting with running a small publishing platform. All members take part in actively shaping what Soapbox is by weighing in on editorial decisions and take part in any aspects of publishing (both online and in print). 

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In general, the time commitment expected is between four and six hrs/week, including a weekly two-hour meeting. The journal is run on a voluntary basis. For all roles, applicants should be based in the Amsterdam area and available for at least the remaining academic year (until June 2023).

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If you're interested, please email info@soapboxjournal.net with any particular role(s) you would be interested in.

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Deadline: October 31st

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Editor-in-chief

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• Act as representative of Soapbox with third parties.
• Keep an overview of and manage/coordinate/delegate all the practical aspects of the journal both print and online (finance, distribution, PR, events, funding, etc).
• Communicate closely with the Administration person and the other teams; hold others to deadlines.
• Chair the weekly meetings. 

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Managing editor 

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• Delegate and oversee all matters relating to the publication and production of the print issue.
• Facilitate discussion on the issue’s theme and content; produce and distribute a call for papers; organise and manage a submission and selection process; set the editorial calendar.
• Move content through stages of production: communicate with authors, assign editors, organise peer review, contact scholars for a foreword/afterword, arrange a proofreading process.
• Liaise with designers and printers.
• Communicate closely (including setting deadlines) with the administration team, the funding team, and the issue’s editors.

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Funding 

We would like to stress that we need applicants for this position to commit to being consistent and reliable for the duration of the editorial timeline of one issue, which tends to take one year.

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• Researching grants, and applying for grants, which includes writing application letters and budgets, sourcing additional documents, and asking for letters of recommendation.
• Maintaining contact with various institutes for funding per year/event, providing the team with regular updates.

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Web coordinator

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• Managing the web email and the web drive folder.
• Overseeing the submission process and the editorial process.
• Communicating closely with the Administration person, the (web) Editors and PR and communication. 
• Delegating Reader 1 and Reader 2 for each submission.

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Finance and distribution

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• Keeping track of ingoing/outgoing expenses via bank account and spreadsheet, approving transactions.
• Paying invoices.
• Keeping track of journal sales and posting orders, sending out free copies to contributors, responding to email orders.
• Managing the journal’s Big Cartel account and associated payment systems (Stripe, PayPal, iDEAL).
• Keeping an inventory of stock.
• Reaching out to bookshops who might be interested in stocking the journal, taking copies to them and checking-in with sales.

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PR and communication

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• Creating, writing, and sharing social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Sharing content for events.
• Disseminating info about events, open positions, and Calls for Papers.
• Contacting designers.
• Contacting advertisers.
• Serve as the contact person for other third parties.

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Events and collaborations

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• Coming up with ideas for and planning events such as issue launches, film screenings, any other relevant events.
• Writing copy and coordinating communication with PR.
• Organising production aspects of events, coordinating with the finance team.
• Liaising with internal and external stakeholders.
• Researching events related to the current/upcoming issue, Soapbox, and/or cultural analysis, include these in the calendar and communicate to PR.

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IT

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• Keep track of website analytics.
• Sorting out any website or email related issues (communicating with web designer, working through the website’s backend (Webflow), and sorting out Google domains and hosting).
• Uploading content to the website.

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Administration

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• Assisting the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Web Coordinator with planning and taking minutes of meetings. 
• Creating Trello tasks and voting polls. 
• Managing all inboxes.

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Podcast

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• Assisting the podcast team with scripting, recording and sound editing. 
• Coordinating episode production and releases in tandem with the journal calendar. 
• Acting as a point of contact with funding and communication departments. 

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For the next issue of Soapbox we invite young researchers and established scholars alike to submit academic essays or creative work that critically engages with the theme of interface. We are inviting extended proposals (500-1000 words) that follow the MLA formatting and referencing style. We don't charge a submission fee.

Send your proposal to submissions@soapboxjournal.net by December 14th 2021.

An interface is a space of contact and interconnection. Thinking within but also beyond a media studies framework, we can understand our lives to be constantly mediated by interfaces of one form or another. Broadly speaking, they serve as an intermediary between an individual and a system, or alternatively conceptualised, between experience and infrastructure. Interfaces mediate between a body and its environment, private and public, subject and object. In each instance, the interface enables interaction and activity. Think of the movement from print to digital media, the structural design of spaces and buildings, the reception of knowledge from an academic paper: as we move through the world we encounter and interact with a range of interfaces that delineate the possibilities of experience in profound ways. Their politics can be intentionally designed or inherently implicated in their operations. As such, interfaces are cultural as well as political: they connect us to a matrix of histories and structures while their imbrication in power can afford and advance the needs of one group at the expense of another. ‍

We invite you to think through and beyond the somatechnic view of the interface, allowing perspectives that explore the aesthetic, infrastructural, affective, material, and political dimensions of the interfaces that give shape to contemporary experience.