Journal Review: Kairos

A bit of “front matter,” as the saying goes: “kairos” means, according to those in the know, “the right or opportune time.”  Also, I chose to write about the journal Kairos because I was recently involved (along with a bunch of other folks from the English department) in writing a review of a DVD for Kairos, which was published in January.  It was a very painless process, and I can definitely suggest and recommend Kairos as a great journal to submit your scholarly works.

Mission:

Kairos focuses on new media, and the ways we compose for and with it.  They promote “work that enacts its scholarly argument through rhetorical and innovative uses of new media.” They publish primarily “web texts,” or texts written specifically and especially for publication on the web.  The “About” page reflects this mission, in that there are quite a few hyperlinks throughout the page, with links that take the reader to an in-depth description of the referreed process utilized when accepting or declining submissions to a lengthy discussion of Kairos’ “fair use” and statement of copyright page.  Kairos is published in August and January.   Special issues are published in May. They state that their acceptance rate for published articles is roughly 10%.

Topics of Interest

Kairos’ topics of interest are related to technology as it relates to the discipline of English: “(e.g., rhetoric, composition, technical and professional communication, education, creative writing, language and literature).” They also address “media studies, informatics, arts technology, and others.”   Also published are “teaching-with-technology narratives, reviews of print and digital media, extended interviews with leading scholars, interactive exchanges, “letters” to the editors, and news and announcements of interest.”

The sections of Kairos are divided as follows:  Topoi, Praxis, PraxisWiki, Inventio, Interviews, Reviews, and Disputato.

Editorial Review Board

The editorial review board has 41 members, and includes Victor J. Vitanza from Clemson University, who is the Director of the interdisciplinary-transdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design.

Also on the board is Anne Wysocki from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Wysocki who wrote the textbook I am planning to use for 20803 in the fall:  compose/design/advocate: a rhetoric for integrating the written, visual, and oral.

Submission Policies:

Kairos is very specific in that they do not want the traditional essay written on Microsoft Word.  They do, however, want submissions that engage the use of new and exciting media:  they ask for “innovative web design, creative formatting techniques, and challenges to the status quo. Submissions should integrate the use of the digital medium as part of their focus—for example, effectively exploiting the possibilities of non-linear texts, creative interfaces, and multimedia approaches. We encourage the use of digital audio and video work.” There is no specific formatting requirement, but instead they provide a number of accepted articles which are representative of the sort of work they are looking for in a publishable essay.  I’m particularly fond of this one.

Deafened to their Demands:  An Ethnographic Study of Accomodation by Michael J. Salvo of Northeastern University is one such “non-linear text.”  Salvo’s essay addresses the difficulties the author witnessed at a university when the needs of a population of students went unmet.  Salvo writes that both the activists on the outside of the institution and the reformers on the inside were unable create the reform needed to meet the legally mandated needs of the school’s population of deaf students.  Salvo’s essay is structured in such a way that the reader can easily jump from topic to topic by clicking on hypertext situated beneath various terms, thus allowing the reader to read the essay in any order he or she wishes.

Textural Textuality:  a personal exploration of critical race theory, by Joyce Walker, is an interactive essay about critical race theory.  The first screen shows a bus arriving, and above it are the words, “Wait for the bus.”  As the bus “arrives,” the text arrives beneath it, with the final word (“through”) set off in red.  There are various links throughout the essay, along with pictures, text, and other interactive multimedia.  Early into the experience, there is a description of the various interactive possibilities available to the reader.  Each new page offers new opportunities, and no two reading experiences are the same…much as I would anticipate that no two personal explorations of critical race theory are the same, either.

Kairos is a great journal to explore – I don’t say read, because the essays themselves are not necessarily all to be read.  There are film clips, cartoons, and textually based essays presented in decidedly non-textually based ways.  There are blogs, commenting capabilities, wikis…this is a very entertaining journal.  I encourage my classmates to visit the website and explore – they might have some great ideas as a result.

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