Over 40 years ago, Susan Sontag wrote that “growing older is mainly an ordeal of the imagination—a moral disease, a social pathology.” While Sontag’s reflection focused, primarily, on the diverging temporal, social, and existential experiences of men and women in the face of aging, the 2013 issue of Seachange aims to posit age as a multifaceted theoretical tool which cuts across a range of disciplines. The paradox of age—that it can be conceptualized as both event and longue durée—facilitates an in-depth enquiry into its philosophical, historical, and theoretical dimensions. With its fourth issue, Seachange seeks to build an environmental-intellectual portrait of age that will question how we conceptualize and live age as a sweep of delimited time, a state of biological evolution, and an active act of judgment that parses past, present, and future, and that can encompass both human and non-human actors.

We seek reflections that frame age as a multi-dimensional concept that addresses the ways in which aging is an omnipresent, ongoing, collective, and inevitable process. Issue 4 will investigate changing conceptions of age and shifting generational markers (ageism e.g.); age as epochal marker (the “digital age” e.g.); theories of time (presentism e.g.) and the contemporary (fashion, technological obsolescence e.g.). Contributions can range from position papers on the cultural politics of medicine (from neurodegenerative diseases to micro histories of anesthetics e.g.), to explorations of the redeployment of past literary genres and the reevaluation of specific moments within critical theory or political thought, to explorations of the place of age in artistic practices (from long-term installations spanning several decades to questions of preservation, e.g.) to digital approaches to analog technologies, and beyond.

The foremost mission of Seachange is to promote a high degree of scholarly creativity. Contributions based on a wide range of approaches are welcome. Beyond an engagement with age as a theoretical and affective event, the present issue of Seachange might also act as a platform for the examination of rapidly evolving academic cultures.

Abstracts of 300 words describing contributions in English or French, ranging from 1,500-3,000 words, should be sent to caroline.bem@mail.mcgill.ca or rafico.ruiz@mail.mcgill.ca by February 28, 2013. Contributors will be notified by April 1, 2013, and final contributions will be due by June 30, 2013. Citation guidelines can be found at seachangejournal.ca. Contributors should provide a short biography with their contribution. Authors are responsible for clearing all copyright to any translations submitted or illustrations used.