Stanford CIS

Call For Papers: The Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance and Race

By Jeffrey Vagle on

The editors of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance and Race seek additional contributors. This volume will bring together the work of leading scholars in such fields as public health, law, critical race studies, anthropology, criminology, sociology, history, political science, psychology, and philosophy to present an intersectional perspective on the issues of governance, power, and control as applied to racial and other minority populations.

The study of surveillance as a means of establishing and maintaining social order is not new, of course. But the study of the use of the “surveillant assemblage” in the context of race— especially as a means of control, disempowerment, or marginalization— has not benefited from the same kind of focus as technological surveillance in the post-9/11 and post-Snowden world. This gap renders invisible the experience of those populations that are most vulnerable to both legal and illegal surveillance practices—practices that may not appear to many as surveillance at all.

The Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance and Race seeks to fill this gap by taking a comprehensive look at the broad issue of surveillance and race. The proposed book will examine the issue from its often overlooked history in colonialism and slavery to its widespread adoption during industrialization, its importance to the rise of capitalism, its use by police and military organizations as well as public health and social services providers, and the cultural practices that often emerge in response to such programs.

Compilation of the volume is underway, and we currently have a number of excellent chapters. We are now expanding the volume, and we are particularly interested in chapters on the following topics:

Those interested in contributing should send the following information to Khiara M. Bridges (kmb73@bu.edu) and Jeffrey Vagle (jeff@vagle.se) no later than April 16, 2018:

First drafts of the chapters will be due to the editors on July 15, 2018. Final drafts will be due on September 15, 2018.

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