How are "truths" and "facts" produced and used? Testimony comes in many forms – autobiography, memoir, poetry, personal narrative, oral history, primary source material, historical documents, eyewitness accounts, and individual experiences. Using testimony as a pedagogical tool raises such questions as: How does one define subjectivity and objectivity? Who has the authority to speak and who is silenced? How do we theorize and analyze "experience”? What is the relationship between different experiences of trauma, both personal and historical? What is the role of community in the creation and validation of narratives of witness? What are the ethics of testimony? How are testimonial narratives mediated and represented?

The editors of Transformations seek articles (3,000 – 8,000 words) and media reviews (books, film, video, performance, art, music, etc. – 1,000 to 3,000 words) examining approaches to teaching testimony in a variety of contexts: creative writing, oral history, women’s and gender studies, anthropology, literature, history, psychology, sociology, art, photography, geography, religion, environmental studies, philosophy, working-class studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, and others. Multidisciplinary approaches that focus on--or include--discussions of non-Western cultures are especially encouraged. Autobiographical criticism, narrative scholarship, photo-essays, and experimental work are welcome.

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• How teaching through testimony can be implemented at all levels, K-12 and higher education.
• How teaching through testimony can be relevant to progressive education.
• Hybrid genres: from confessional criticism to the lyric essay.
• How teaching through testimony relates to topics such as war, genocide, domestic abuse, conflict resolution, poverty, racism, citizenship and civil rights.
• Teaching through testimony in non-academic spaces such prisons, shelters, homes for youth at risk, etc.
• How to incorporate trauma theory and theory of witness into the syllabus.

Send two hard copies to: Jacqueline Ellis and Edvige Giunta, Editors, Transformations, New Jersey City University, Grossnickle Hall Room 303, 2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07305 OR email submissions and inquiries to the e-mail address shown below. Email submissions should be sent as attachments in MS Word or Rich Text format. For submission guidelines go to the web address below. DEADLINE: 15 January 2005