We seek papers, creative works, and other forms of inquiry that engage with these concerns, broadly construed. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

“Settler atmospherics” (Simmons) and Indigenous activism

Climate and/as history; histories of weather

Sensing air pollution; citizen science around air pollution

The emergence and role of the “respiratory humanities” or “atmospheric humanities”

Relationship of the above to the “blue humanities,” “green ecocriticism,” and/or “energy humanities”; waves of ecocriticism

Aesthetics of visibility/invisibility and air

Representing air inequality in haptic, olfactory, or other non-visual media

Unhoused populations and air inequality

Environmental racism and air inequality

Wildfires and smoke; prescribed burns and Indigenous fire knowledge as alternative technologies

Respiratory pandemics and the media

Rhetoric of anti-AAPI hate during COVID-19

Masking and dis/ability rhetoric; long COVID and “crip time” (Alison Kafer)

Air purification technology and the commodification of air (see Yangdon Li)

“Atmospheric rivers,” flooding, and representation

Representations of atmospheric layers (troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere)

Air travel and alternatives

Space environmentalism: space debris, cosmic dust, extraterrestrial exploration

Airwaves, radio waves, soundwaves—from podcasts to birdsong

Affect studies and intangible/figurative atmospheres

We also welcome work that engages in other ways with the larger concerns outlined above—including climate change, environmental health and justice, settler colonialism—and/or with the vision and mission of ASLE, which seeks to inspire and promote intellectual work in the environmental humanities and arts. Our vision is an inclusive community whose members are committed to environmental research, education, literature, and art, as well as service, environmental justice, and ecological sustainability. See more here: https://www.asle.org/discover-asle/vision-history/.