[csaa-forum] Call for Papers: PAN Issue on Fungi

[John RYAN]

For the CSAA Forum please.

Thank you,
John


Call for Papers PAN – Philosophy, Activism, Nature journal

Special Issue on Fungi

Issue Number 10, Winter 2013

Guest Editors:  Alison Pouliot and John Ryan

The forgotten kingdom of fungi

With their bizarre trophic modes, complex life histories and menacing mythologies, fungi arouse responses from intrigue to repugnance. They’ve inspired the imaginations of scientists and aesthetes alike. The astonishing diversity of forms engineered by evolution (or perhaps the furtive activities of pixies) enable fungi to inhabit the most extreme ecological niches.  While for some, the unwelcome sprouting of fungi from one’s armpit or refrigerator evokes abhorrence and revulsion.

Fungi are enmeshed in the mythologies and traditions of almost every culture.  Depending on your origin, puffballs may represent fallen stars, warts shed from witches’ noses, or the target of a well-aimed kick.  What may appear as a benign Oyster Mushroom habitually strangles hapless nematodes while Cordyceps re-wire the minds of invertebrates as they succumb to their parasitised demise. Subterranean truffles with their fusty hormonal exudates fetch a higher price than Kopi Luwak or Beluga caviar.  One may ponder whether these fungi or the mycophagists who hold them so mouth-wateringly dear, are indeed the more strange.  But these curious morphologies and sinister associations provide just a glimpse of an invisible realm of intimate affinities that characterise this kingdom.

Despite their ubiquity and ecological significance, fungi are truly the forgotten kingdom. Arguably the ultimate metaphor for the interconnectivities of the biosphere, their importance in underpinning the earth’s terrestrial ecosystems is largely unregarded. The ‘Third F’ remain imprudently overshadowed by flora and fauna in both Australian and global conservation.  Given the symbioses between fungi and all but a handful of plants, it’s staggeringly foolhardy that Homo sapiens continue to actively unravel the very fabric that embodies the earth’s bio-systems.  Ultimately, we will either find ways to conserve the fungal ecologies that sustain the planet, or become another substrate for their decomposition.

This special edition of PAN invites authors to explore the myriad perspectives and ways of thinking about the compelling members of this unseen and oft forgotten kingdom.

Topics could include but are not limited to:


  *   Fungal conservation

  *   Fungal ecology

  *   Fungi in art and literature

  *   Philosophical reflections on fungi

  *   Ethnomycology and cultural perspectives on fungi

  *   Aesthetics of fungi

  *   Mycoremediation

  *   Fungal mythology

Contributions can include scholarly articles, essays, short prose pieces and poetry.

Please send 300 word abstract to alison at alisonpouliot.com and john.ryan at ecu.edu.au by 15 March 2013.

Full papers required by 15 May 2013.

For PAN submission guidelines and other details, please see: http://www.panjournal.net/

PAN is a journal publishing articles, short prose pieces and poetry exploring the philosophical, psychological, mythological, religious, and aesthetic underpinnings of sustainability thought, design and practice. PAN aims to foster perspectives that depart from conventional understandings of 'nature' and 'culture' in order to open alternative pathways of thinking and living ethically and creatively at a time of deepening environmental and social crisis. PAN seeks in particular to provide a forum for emerging conversations between indigenous and settler cultures around questions of reinhabitation, especially, but not exclusively, in Australia. Aiming to bridge the gap between activism and the academy, PAN is pitched at a general readership with an interest in creating a new ecological culture of sustainability. Each issue includes scholarly articles which have been subject to independent peer review as well as other contributions selected by the editors.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20130119/34b954ab/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PAN Call for Papers Special Issue on Fungi 2013.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 222300 bytes
Desc: PAN Call for Papers Special Issue on Fungi 2013.pdf
Url : http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20130119/34b954ab/attachment-0001.pdf