CFP: Nonviolence Philosophy Rising

In a time of multidimensional pandemic assaulting the life, health, and well being of subordinated populations across the globe, we have also experienced unprecedented expressions of nonviolence in the streets. Nonviolence practices have become spontaneous and its literacies accessible to collective desires for empowerment. On the other hand, waves of mass protest also suffer risks of ineffective organization that is unprepared to achieve liberation from deeply rooted structures of violence and injustice.

Under these particular historical conditions, philosophies of nonviolence are awakened to engagement. Where are traditional concepts of nonviolence finding—or failing to find—new form? Where are new concepts of nonviolence breaking into view with compelling promise or cautionary limitations? How must a philosophical approach to nonviolent empowerment be constructed to achieve lasting victories in anti-racist, anti-colonial struggle? How do we conceptualize processes of nonviolence in relation to experimental logics of complexity, spontaneity, or superpositionality such that our philosophies evolve in power and insight?

The Acorn: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence welcomes manuscripts that develop philosophical approaches to activism, pacifism, organizing, and nonviolence. Papers submitted for publication should be prepared for blind submission with title, abstract, author identification, contact info, and institutional affiliation (if any) supplied on a cover sheet. Please submit manuscripts via email, with “Acorn Journal Submission” in the subject line, to the Editor, Greg Moses, at RM95 -at- txstate -dot- edu. Please indicate in the body of the email that the submission is neither previously published nor simultaneous.

This call for papers will expire on Labor Day, 2020.

For more information about The Acorn and its unique legacy, please visit our website: