Interplay: A Journal of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature (ISSN 2617-0574), is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C. We publish original scholarship in each of its designated fields, as well as articles treating the influences and interactions that have historically obtained and continue to exert cultural influence between several language arts disciplines. These include studies in the English, French, German and Spanish languages, as well as linguistics, considered as foundational to all language study, and literature, which engages with both languages and linguistics by way of critical and interpretative methodologies, aesthetics and poetics. The journal aims to achieve a broad theoretical perspective regarding the conceptual and material relationships operating between these interactive disciplines, the better to elucidate their correspondence, dialog, debates and mutually informative concerns.
We welcome contributions from scholars whose areas of expertise intersect the focus of our publication, and whose work reflects unique insights into the ways in which our interdisciplinary approach may lend itself to contemporary interests related to these fields, understood discretely, or viewed as an interrelated matrix.
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Call for Papers for Vol 4. No 1 (2018)
From Center to Periphery and from Periphery to Center: An Inter-Culture exchange
During most of the 20th century, academia knowledge was circulated in the world on a path parallel with Western countries’ political and economic dominance. Western experts were sent out into the world by their native country or by international institutions to share or impose their findings on other countries in the areas of literature, linguistics and the teaching of foreign languages. This is what we might call a diffusion of knowledge from center to periphery. There were some exceptions to this Western dominance but not many.
In the 21st century, a new trend has appeared: Teachers’ associations are now promoting exchange in their own region with other teachers’ associations without necessarily relying on outside Western specialists’ involvement. Many universities today invite speakers from their own geographical area. More and more researchers take their distance from outside resources relying more heavily on local resources. More and more key speakers in conferences and symposiums are now researchers from the local area. Numerous Western specialists travel to other parts of the world to learn from colleagues based in that specific region, equally as much as they do to share their own knowledge. In many departments in Western countries, more non-Western teachers are now invited to teach Western students and participate in educational exchanges with their Western colleagues. This evolving situation is evidently following some new political and economic trends at the macro level, but at the same time it can be argued that it also corresponds to a change of mentality in the academic world.
Therefore, in this issue of Interplay, we are interested in reading about personal and institutional experiences related to these developments and changes. We welcome contributions in the following areas:
- Academic exchange between various institutions or associations in specific geographical areas. Within these regional exchanges, we are particularly interested in such aspects as the description and analysis of the challenges they face, specific aspects of their policies regarding their relationship with the “center”, and educational experiences or research programs that they have initiated.
- On the other side of the spectrum, we are interested in how Western institutions describe and analyze the evolution of their interactions with partners in the “periphery”, and what challenges they are facing in the present situation.
- In the field of methodology, we welcome articles about new theories emerging from the “periphery” and their reception by teachers and researchers in their respective areas. Information about how theories originating in the “periphery” are welcomed by the Western academic world would also be edifying.
- Any evidence of resistance by the “periphery” to new theories coming from the Western academic world would equally be of interest.
- Research and information regarding cross-pollination of theories and methodologies available in the West with those from other parts of the world is also highly welcome.
- Any other contributions dealing with this notion of center and periphery within the research scope of Interplay will also be examined with great care.
Deadline for full paper submissions is Feb 15, 2018; notification of initial acceptance for review will be sent by Feb 28, 2018. Notice of final acceptance will be sent by April 15, 2018. Final drafts of accepted essays will be due May 15, 2018. On acceptance for publication, authors will be asked to fill in and sign a publication release form and give their consent to online as well as paper publication of their article.
For more details on format requirements and contact information, please refer to the Style Guide below.
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Du centre vers la périphérie et de la périphérie vers le centre : que se passe-t-il ?
Call for papers for Vol.4 No 1 (2018)
Du centre vers la périphérie et de la périphérie vers le centre: un échange interculturel.
Durant la majeure partie du 20ème siècle le savoir académique a circulé sur une voie parallèle à la domination politique et économique de l’Occident. Les experts occidentaux étaient envoyés en mission dans d’autres pays par leurs pays respectifs ou par des institutions internationales pour partager / imposer leurs découvertes que ce soit dans les domaines de la littérature, de la linguistique ou de l’enseignement des langues étrangères. C’est ce que nous définirons comme une diffusion de la connaissance du centre vers la périphérie. Quelques exceptions de cette domination occidentale ont existé mais très peu.
La tendance semble changer au 21ème siècle. Des associations de professeurs promeuvent des échanges dans leur propre région avec d’autres associations qui ne s’appuient pas nécessairement sur des spécialistes occidentaux. De nombreuses universités invitent des intervenants de pays proches. De plus en plus de chercheurs prennent leur distance par rapport au savoir occidental et puisent dans les ressources locales. On observe également dans les conférences et les symposiums un plus grand nombre de chercheurs locaux intervenant en séance plénière. Nombre de spécialistes occidentaux se déplacent dans d’autres régions du monde autant pour s’informer auprès de leurs collègues locaux que pour partager leurs connaissances. On remarque aussi un recrutement plus marqué d’experts non occidentaux dans les universités occidentales autant pour l’enseignement que pour la recherche.
L’évolution de cette situation est évidemment dépendante de nouvelles tendances au niveau macro politique et économique mais elle correspond également à un changement de mentalité dans le monde académique.
Nous sommes donc intéressés dans ce nouveau numéro d’Interplay par des articles décrivant des expériences au niveau personnel ou institutionnel relatives à ces évolutions et changements. Seront bienvenus les travaux traitant par exemple:
Interplay Style Guide
Manuscripts should be in Word format (.doc or .docx), formatted according to the latest edition of the MLA Handbook, with in-text citations in the form of parenthetical documentation in author-page format.
For web publications, please provide URLs as well as access dates in the Works Cited section.
Do not add Print or Web in a Works Cited entry to indicate if the source is a print or web publication.
Font matters: Use Times New Roman, 12 pt.
Spacing: Use standard double spacing throughout the entire text of your paper.
Do not use footnotes. Use endnotes only if absolutely necessary. Insert the endnotes page (entitled Notes for English and French, Anmerkungen for German, or Notas for Spanish) between article text and works cited section.
Do not use automatic hyphenation in your word processor.
Please use the following section titles in your manuscript:
- for English-language submissions: Abstract, Notes, Works Cited
- for French-language submissions: Résumé, Notes, Bibliographie / Ouvrages Cités / OEuvres Citées
- for German-language submissions: Abstract / Zusammenfassung, Anmerkungen, Literaturverzeichnis
- for Spanish-language submissions: Resumen, Notas, Bibliografía
Submissions should be between 6,000-10,000 words including abstract, notes and references. All submissions should be emailed as attachments to the co-editors and include a brief bio of no more than 100 words, an abstract of 200-300 words, and a list of up to seven key words. To help with the double-blind peer review, file names and document properties need to be anonymized and names and affiliations under the title of the manuscript should be removed before submission.
For submissions or general inquiries, please contact the co-editors:
- Stano Kong: stanokong@thu.edu.tw
- Manfred Sablotny: Manfred.Sablotny@gmail.com
Interplay: A Journal of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature is published by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.