[CFP update] a Special Issue of Asian Journal of Communication

A Special Issue of Asian Journal of Communication 

Call For Papers 

Communicative Response to Anti-Asian Racism  


The CFP page can be accessed at https://bit.ly/Asian_Journal_Communication_ 

Abstract Submission to AJCSI2022@gmail.com


Guest Editors: 

  1. Dr. Jin-Ae Kang, Associate Professor, School of Communication, College of Fine Arts and communication, East Carolina University, USA; (kangj@ecu.edu
  2. Dr. YoungJu Shin, Associate Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University (Youngju.Shin@asu.edu )  
  3. Dr. Do Kyun Kim, Richard D’Aquin/BORSF Endowed Professor, Department of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (do.kim@louisiana.edu ).  
  4. Dr. Peter J. Schulz, Director of the Institute of Communication and Health at the University of Lugano, Switzerland, and Professor of Communication Theories and Health Communication (peter.schulz@usi.ch ). 

In recent years, Anti-Asian sentiment has notably increased across different countries. Especially, hate crimes against Asian populations have surged since the start of the COVID19 pandemic (Pillai, Yellow Horse, & Jeung, 2021). In fact, hate crime targeting Asians in 16 of the largest US cities had increased 149 percent between 2019 and 2020, while overall reports of hate crimes declined by 7 percent over the same period (Martin & Yoon, 2021). According to the research conducted by Pew Research Center (Ruiz, Edwards & Lopez, 2021), one-third of Asian Americans expressed their fear of racial discrimination or anti-Asian terrorism, and 45 percent experienced diverse incidents caused by impulsive or systematic racism.  In addition, a recent survey report presented that 40 percent of US adults believed that more people have expressed racist views toward Asians since the pandemic began (Ruiz, Horowitz, & Tamir, 2020). The situation is the same in European countries. Janke and Schäfer (2021) reported that 74 percent of Asian descents in Germany experienced derogatory nonverbal expressions, facial expressions, or gestures, while 27 percent experienced institutional exclusion and 11 percent experienced physical assault.They also pointed out almost 85 percent of respondents believed that Asians were responsible for the spread of the COVID19 pandemic in Germany. Anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.K. have also increased by 21 percent during the first three months of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019 (Grierson, 2020).      

Responding to such empirical incidents, academic society has called for studies regarding racism against Asians (Gao & Liu, 2021). Some studies focus on the psychological issues of anti-Asian stigma, while others try to understand such incidences through sociological approaches (i.e., Misra et al., 2020; Wu, Qian & Wilkes, 2021). However, anti-Asian sentiment and crimes should be reconsidered from the communication perspective as communication is a fundamental cause of and shapes psychological bias, social discrimination, and political environment against Asians. However, the recent literature shows a very narrow scope that tends to deal with the anti-Asian phenomenon and historically endured sufferings of Asians as a temporary trend during the COVID 19 pandemic. Therefore, this special issue aims to pinpoint the causes, processes, consequences, and solutions of the anti-Asian sentiment from diverse communication perspectives.  

There are still many unaddressed points. Stereotypical and prejudiced narratives toward Asians such as model minority, yellow perils, or hyposexuality of Asian women in media representation have prevailed even before the COVID-19 crisis and continued to exacerbate during the pandemic (Li & Nicholson, 2021). Hate speech and polarization in social media incite prejudice toward Asian Americans and cause racial stigma associated with the spread of the coronavirus. However, there is still little research on the influence of social media on anti-Asian racism.  The overt and covert racism against Asians needs further investigation in the interpersonal and organizational communication settings (Woo & Jun, 2021). More importantly, extant literature barely addresses how Asians take actions to react to and cope with discrimination and combat against anti-Asian racism. Anti-Asian racism prevalent in Asian counties also needs to be addressed to better understand anti-Asian racism in and out of the Asian continent. Therefore, more effort should be made to explore the prolonged social issue of discrimination and prejudice against Asians, beyond the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

This special issue focuses on the phenomenon of anti-Asian sentiment, with perspectives from media representation, interpersonal and organizational contexts, and social movement. We invite papers that analyze the causes, dissemination, and consequences of anti-Asian racism from the communication perspectives related to social support, social media, international relations, immigration, social movement, prejudice, micro-aggression, inter-group dynamics, etc. Additionally, we welcome manuscripts that address the role of communication and activism and their influences on dismantling racism and prejudice against Asians.  

As this special issue strives to create and continue the social discourse on anti-Asian racism and, simultaneously, contribute to preventing further anti-Asian racism, we hope to provide researchers, practitioners, and policy decision-makers with insights for communicative policy-making and campaigns for social change to promote justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the global community.  

We welcome diverse theoretical and methodological approaches for this feature topic. Possible topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to: 

  1. Media representation of Asians: Media coverage on Asians and anti-Asian hate crimes  
  2. Cross-national and/or cross-cultural comparative studies of anti-Asian sentiment  
  3. Intra-Asian racism: Anti-Asian racism that is found within Asian countries such as hostile sentiment against Africans or Indians in China, or against Chinese in Korea or Japan.  
  4. Influence of COVID-19 on anti-Asian sentiment and racism 
  5. Social media, free speech, and anti-Asian hate speech 
  6. Anti-Asian hate crime and mental and physical health  
  7. Interpersonal communication about anti-Asian racism, coping strategies, and social support 
  8. Issues of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion regarding anti-Asian prejudice in an organization setting: leadership prototypes, stereotypes, and micro-aggression in workplaces, etc. 
  9. Diversity, inclusion, and equity issues focusing on Asians or anti-Asian sentiment among the professionals in the media industry such as journalism, public relations, advertising, film, etc.  
  10. Activism among Asians against anti-Asian racism: activism in digital media, social change, mobilization, and political engagement of Asians or Asian ethnic organizations    
  11.  Communication strategies responding to anti-Asian sentiment and hate crime 
  12.  Effects of anti-Asian sentiment/crime in schools including K-12 and higher education  


Information about submission 

Extended abstracts should include the title of the paper, the purpose of the study, the uniqueness of the study, and the theoretical and/or methodological approach. The length of an extended abstract would be between 500 – 800 words (excluding references). All submitters should provide their affiliation, position, email address, and short bios (50-100 words each). Please send your abstract as one-word file with the subject line: [Asian Journal of Communication] Feature Topic by Feb 15th, 2022,

to AJCSI2022@gmail.com.

A complete manuscript should be between 6000 and 9000 words in length, including tables, references, figure captions, endnotes. An abstract with about 150 words should be presented on the first page of the complete manuscript. All complete manuscripts should be submitted following the Asian Journal of Communication standard submission process (see here: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rajc20&page=instructions). 


Timeline: 

Extended abstract submission deadline: February 15th, 2022  

Decision for abstract acceptance deadline: March 1st, 2022   

Full paper submission deadline: June 30th, 2022  

First-round review decisions: August 15th, 2022  

First-round revisions due: September 30th, 2022  

First Publication Decision & (if needed) Return for the second revision: October 30th, 2022  

Second round revisions due November 20th, 2022  

Final editorial decision: December 15th, 2022 

The CFP page can be accessed at https://bit.ly/Asian_Journal_Communication_ 


References 

Gao, Q., & Liu, X. (2021). Stand against anti-Asian racial discrimination during COVID-19: A Call for action. International Social Work64(2), 261–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872820970610 

Grierson, J. (2020). Anti-Asian hate crimes up 21% in UK during coronavirus crisis. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/anti-asian-hate-crimes-up-21-in-uk-during-coronavirus-crisis 

Janke. C.& Schäfer, C. (2021). Frequent anti-Asian attacks in Germany during COVID-19, Mediendienst Integration, https://mediendienst-integration.de/artikel/frequent-anti-asian-attacks-in-germany-during-covid-19.html 

Li, Y., & Nicholson, H. L. (2021). When “model minorities” become “yellow peril”—Othering and the racialization of Asian Americans in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Sociology Compass15(2), e12849-e12861. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12849 

Martin, T. M. & Yoon, D. (2021). From BTS to Britain, Anti-Asian Racism Gets New Attention outside the U.S. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-bts-to-britain-anti-asian-racism-gets-new-attention-outside-the-u-s-11617201163 

Misra, S., Le, P. D., Goldmann, E., & Yang, L. H. (2020). Psychological impact of anti-Asian stigma due to the COVID-19 pandemic: A call for research, practice, and policy responses. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy12(5), 461. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000821    

Pillai, D., Yellow Horse, A. J., & Jeung, R. (2021). The Rising Tide of Violence and Discrimination Against Asian American and Pacific Islander Women and Girls. https://stopaapihate.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/05/Stop-AAPI-Hate_NAPAWF_Whitepaper.pdf  

Ruiz, N. G., Edwards, K. & Lopez, M.H. (2021). One-third of Asian Americans fear threats, physical attacks and most say violence against them is rising.  Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/21/one-third-of-asian-americans-fear-threats-physical-attacks-and-most-say-violence-against-them-is-rising/   

Ruiz, N. G., Horowitz, J. M. & Tamir, C. (2020). Many Black and Asian Americans say they have experienced discrimination amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/07/01/many-black-and-asian-americans-say-they-have-experienced-discrimination-amid-the-covid-19-outbreak/ 

Woo, B., & Jun, J. (2021). COVID-19 racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among Asian Americans: Does communication about the incident matter? Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01167-x  

Wu, C., Qian, Y., & Wilkes, R. (2021). Anti-Asian discrimination and the Asian-white mental health gap during COVID-19. Ethnic and Racial Studies44(5), 819-835. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1851739  

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