Grassroots Leadership & the Arts for Social Change A Volume in the ILA Building Leadership Bridges (BLB) Series Call for Abstracts Deadline December 1, 2015 You are invited to submit a 250 word abstract on the theme Grassroots Leadership & the Arts for Social Change for our Building Leadership Bridges Series, published by Emerald Group Publishing with an anticipated publication date of March, 2017. Please see details below. Following an editorial review, selected authors will be contacted and invited to submit a 5,000 word max previously unpublished paper due May 4, 2016, for consideration. Please note that an accepted abstract does not guarantee inclusion in the book. Final acceptance will depend on the finished product. Co- Editors Susan J. Erenrich, Ph.D. and Jon F. Wergin, Ph.D. Susie is the founder/Executive Director of the Cultural Center for Social Change and a Professor at American University and New York University. Jon is a Professor of Educational Studies in Antioch University’s Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change. Call for Proposals Details The International Leadership Association invites you to submit your work on the theme, Grassroots Leadership & the Arts for Social Change for a volume in our Building Leadership Bridges series. The series captures the best contemporary thinking about leadership from a diverse range of scholars, practitioners, and educators working in the field of leadership studies. In keeping with the mission of the ILA, the book series connects ways of researching, imagining, and experiencing leadership across cultures, over time, and around the world. The book will be published by Emerald Group Publishing with an expected publication date of March 2017. Background Throughout history artists have led grassroots movements of protest, resistance, and liberation. They created dangerously, sometimes becoming martyrs for the cause. Their efforts kindled a fire, aroused the imagination and rallied the troops culminating in real transformational change. For instance, slaves sang “No More Auction Block For Me” under their breath, out of earshot of the master as a statement of purpose or defiance; songwriter Joe Hill courageously faced a five-man firing squad on November 19, 1915 after working tirelessly with the Industrial Workers of the World; following the September 11, 1973 Chilean coup, folksinger Victor Jara boldly stood in Santiago’s stadium before he was tortured, beaten, electrocuted, and machine-gunned to death; Musicians United For Safe Energy (MUSE) demonstrated, performed, and raised money

for the anti-nuclear movement; Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali known for his political criticism of Israel, was mortally wounded after being shot in the face by unknown persons in London in 1987; and more recently, in January of 2015 the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo were senselessly murdered in their administrative offices in Paris. Their art served as a form of dissent during times of war, social upheaval, and political unrest. Less dramatically perhaps, artists have also participated in demonstrations, benefit concerts, and have become philanthropists in support of their favorite causes. These artists have been overlooked or given too little attention in the literature on leadership, even though the consequences of their courageous crusades, quite often, resulted in censorship, “blacklisting,” imprisonment, and worse. Howard Gardner is one of the few leadership scholars that discuss artists in his book, Creating Minds (1993). Even though the book makes a bold attempt at highlighting artists from the 20th century who made significant breakthroughs in their respective professions, his argument never touches upon artists’ contributions towards societal change. This volume seeks to explore the intersection of grassroots leadership and the arts for social change by accentuating the many victories artists have won for humanity. History has shown that these imaginative movers and shakers are a force with which to be reckoned with. Through this volume, we hope readers will vicariously experience the work of these brave figures, reflect on their commitments and achievements, and continue to dream a better world full of possibility. The authors for this issue of Building Leadership Bridges will call for papers, essays and creative works that explore the intersection of grassroots leadership and the arts for social change. The editors expect each submission to be supported by a theoretical, philosophical, and/or disciplinary grounding. We will seek traditional scholarly articles/essays, personal reflective narratives, ethnographies, plays, poetry, visual art, and photo essays, as well as reports of research and discussions of how educators and practitioners have used these concepts in their classrooms, in their personal development, and in leadership workshops. Questions for Stimulation • •

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The editors of this volume offer a set of guiding questions to stimulate your thinking about Grassroots Leadership & The Arts For Social Change: How can understanding the various ways that cultural and community activists engage with each other contribute to a new discourse on transformational leadership? What roles do artists involved in social change initiatives and movements play in empowering community leaders and building solid foundations for participatory democracy from the bottom-up? How do artists involved in popular education forums and participatory action research create safe spaces for growth? How do artists/activists effectively work with oppressed populations to help them use their voices and assume leadership positions?

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What ethical considerations must artists take into account when operating in oppressed environments? How do cultural activists deal with issues related to sustainable social change?

Areas for Submission The editors welcome previously unpublished submissions that explore the theme Grassroots Leadership & the Arts for Social Change from diverse perspectives, disciplines, cultures and sectors. Submissions should strengthen ties among those who study, practice and foster effective leadership. Submissions will be considered in five areas that help us understand leadership and leading at the intersections of research or theory, application, experience, and art. • Analyses of grassroots artist leaders and/or leadership: Researchers should present inquiries, findings, and discussions that analyze the relationships among grassroots leadership and the arts for social change using a variety of methods, including (but not limited to) narrative inquiry, case study, portraiture, discourse analysis, participatory action research and performance ethnography and historiography. Papers may include contemporary, literary and historical figures. • Cultivating leaders and teaching about leadership through arts- based popular education gatherings: Authors who study or participate in arts-based community leadership building activities are invited to share their experiences about process and outcome. Every piece must meet acceptable criteria for scholarship in the appropriate discipline. The editors are specifically interested in papers directly related to popular education approaches. In popular education pedagogy, everyone is a leader and the nature of the transforming process is part of an individual’s evolution toward emancipation. The paradigm is based on the teachings of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, and the cofounder of the Highlander Folk School, Myles Horton. Possible themes could include the benefits and drawbacks of the methodology. For instance, Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), pioneered by Augusto Boal, has been widely researched and utilized in diverse settings around the globe. The TO system is a tribute to Paulo Freire and is grounded in the principles laid out in his classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. There are benefits and drawbacks related to this arts-based community practice. For example, TO is hailed for its ability to liberate, transform and empower heterogeneous populations. It has the potential to yield extraordinary outcomes. TO is also criticized for failing to lay a proper foundation for prospective trainers, resulting in bad community practices. The editors welcome further discourse related to this topic and other arts-based community development programs. • Leadership theory: Near the beginning of his 1948 publication The New Men of Power, C. Wright Mills recounted eyewitness testimony of an incident that occurred in Everett, Washington during the Free Speech battle waged by the IWW in 1917. When a ship full of Wobblies approached the shore, Sheriff McRae shouted out to them, “Who is your leader?” “We are all leaders!” was the response. The sheriff and his men opened fire on the vessel killing five of the protesters on board (Lynd & Grubacic, 2008). Submissions related to the “We Are All Leaders” motif are encouraged and welcome.

Leadership without followership is a theme embraced by many cultural activists. The inclusion of articles on this subject is meant to extrapolate concepts from the traditional leadership literature and expand its boundaries by making room for a more integrated understanding and the development of theories related to the arts, social change, and grassroots leadership. • Artistic works: The fine and performing arts can be explored as sources of information or units of analysis about grassroots leadership and the arts for social change. Artists in these and other genres are encouraged to submit original works that relate to the theme and discourse of this underrepresented topic in the field of leadership studies. Here again, the submission must adhere to acceptable criteria for scholarship in the appropriate discipline. • Boundary crossing: This topic invites consideration from a variety of disciplines, including music, theatre, dance, visual art, film, sociology, social movement history, community organizing, grassroots transformational leadership, narrative methodology, and others. Contributors are invited to take a multi-perspective and/or interdisciplinary approach, which may include representing research in artistic form. Submission Guidelines Send submissions electronically as two WORD DOCUMENTS to ILA Communications Director, Debra DeRuyver at [email protected] by December 1, 2015 with the subject line: Submission - BLB 2017 Grassroots Leadership and the Arts. Your submission must include: • •

Document 1: 250-word, max, abstract (not counting references) free of identifying information/ready for blind review. Document 2: Cover sheet that includes all of the following: suggested area of submission, title of submission, and the names, affiliations, and contact information (including best phone, best email, and mailing address) for all contributors.

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APA style should be followed. Notes should be kept to a minimum. If necessary, use end notes, NOT footnotes. Margins should be 1" on all four sides, left-aligned, NOT justified. The pages of each document should have the title of your submission as a running header and the page number. Submissions should be in Times New Roman, font size 12, double spaced, and indented paragraphs for all submissions EXCEPT artistic works.

PLEASE NOTE: All submissions must meet these guidelines except artistic works. If

guidelines are not met, submission may be excluded from consideration. NOTE ON MULTIMEDIA SUBMISSIONS: If your abstract is selected, you are welcome to write a complete chapter that references videos, photos, etc. that are available for the reader to peruse on your website. However, at this time, we do not plan to produce a multimedia companion to the book. Notifications Abstracts will be reviewed in December and invitations to submit complete chapters will be sent out late December. If you do not hear back from ILA by January 4, 2016 regarding your submitted abstract, please contact us at [email protected].