Call: Special Issue - Equitable Pandemic Response & Recovery

JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

GUEST EDITORS:  

- Zeno Franco, PhD, Department of Family & Community Medicine, DrPH program faculty, Medical College of Wisconsin

- Robert “Biko” Baker, PhD, African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

- Michael Stevenson, MPH, Population Health Institute, University of Wisconsin - Madison

- Monique Liston, PhD, Ubuntu Research and Evaluation

- Marques Hogans, MPH, Ascension Wisconsin

- Dawn Yang, Nyob Zoo TV

- Margarita Northrop, MPH, MIPA, Office of Policy and Practice Alignment, Division of Public Health, State of Wisconsin

- Katinka Hooyer, PhD, Department of Family & Community Medicine, Center for Healthy Communities & Research, Medical College of Wisconsin

- Paula Tran Inzeo, MPH, Population Health Institute, University of Wisconsin - Madison

- David Nelson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, DrPH Program Director, Medical College of Wisconsin

- Anthony BlackOwl Sr, undergraduate student, Department of Psychology, University of California - Davis

- Marie Sandy, PhD, Department of Administrative Leadership, Affiliate Faculty, Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

- Susanne Jul, PhD, Founder, Creative Crisis Leadership

- Ganapathy Pattukandan, PhD, Centre for Mitigation and Management, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

- Gina Belton, PhD PHN,  PhD Psychology Program, Existential Humanistic Psychology Saybrook University

THOUGHT PARTNERS

- InPower Solutions

- Creative Crisis Leadership

OVERVIEW & INTENT OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE

This special issue is motivated by experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a desire to explore an increasingly transdisciplinary view of public health, integrating ideas as decolonial praxis from psychology, ethnography, anthropology, economics, cultural, arts, and communications studies. Our intent is to build on conversations about inclusive and equitable disaster recovery that place individual and lived experiences of communities - within the context of the broader disaster event - at the forefront of the discussion.

Humanistic psychology presents a unique and open framework for exploring how human potential, actualization, and strengths can be leveraged in challenging situations.  The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how profound inequities in social determinants of health lead to increased disease incidence, morbidity and mortality in Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian and other communities, reflecting generations of colonization and epistemicide. Bridging humanistic psychology, public health, and communities can provide important insights about attuning person- and neighborhood-centered public health strategies for major crisis events to particular cultures, languages, and value systems.

This special issue will emphasize completed projects that demonstrate real-world application of the ideas drawn from these disciplines in applied pandemic response and/or recovery.  We are looking for specific response examples that show significant and sustained attention to equity, community health concerns, and culturally attuned public health messaging during the pandemic. Projects that explicitly navigate issues around individual, community, and institutional power are encouraged.

We recognize that data capture was often a secondary consideration to direct community response during the pandemic.  Thus, well constructed post-project analysis, after action reviews, reflection and commentary are also welcome. Research strategies that acknowledge epistemic injustice through community-based practice, cultural centeredness, and application of Traditional Indigenous Knowledges (TIK) are strongly encouraged.  Data that speak to community views and priorities, including photographs, field notes, artwork, URL pointers to music, multimedia, software systems (e.g. chatbots, etc.) are viewed as fundamental forms of evidence, although projects presenting quantitative data or mixed-methods approaches are also actively sought. Regardless of the specific methods or forms of data, clear evidence of direct public health response that illustrate lessons learned from completed COVID-19 related projects will be most competitive for inclusion.  

On one hand, we are interested in papers that show effective partnerships between major agencies and communities, for example, departments of public health, universities, hospitals, and healthcare systems working with community-based organizations and residents. Alternatively, manuscripts might focus on grassroots, spontaneous responses that are wholly driven at the individual or neighborhood level without institutional partners.  Where appropriate, the ability to show genuine equity and community inclusion in authorship will also be given special attention.

Projects that are similarly oriented but reflect other recent crisis events will be considered.  While much of the editorial team is based in the US, JHP is an international journal. Papers reflecting lessons from international and transnational projects are encouraged.

POTENTIAL TOPICS

--  Application of person- & community-centered approaches in COVID-19

--  Institutional civic engagement and capacity building in the context of crisis

--  Community health workers, promotores/as, ambassadors in COVID-19 response

--  Community-led / grassroots pandemic response

--  Attuning public health communication for BIPOC, rural, migrant, and other hard to reach populations

--  Economic instability, homelessness, workers’ rights & conditions of employment

--  Managing chronic health considerations during the crisis

--  Mental health as a public health concern during COVID-19

--  Cultural influencers and trusted messengers

--  Arts & music based public health communication strategies

--  Cultivating non-traditional leadership in times of crisis

--  Community power building during the pandemic response

--  Addressing vaccine hesitancy/confidence in communities of color

--  Reflection on the personal, community and societal impact of the pandemic

--  Innovations in action research and human centered design for crisis events

--  The role of humanistic psychology in public health and disaster response

--  Designing equitable and inclusive pandemic recovery

--  Conceptualizing the future of public health as a local and global priority

PROCESS & DEADLINES

ARTICLE PROPOSAL - to be considered, authors must submit a 1-2 page (800 word maximum) preliminary article proposal.  The guest editors will review for relevance, demonstration of practical COVID-19 response experience, and may make suggestions about the direction for the first draft. All proposals will receive feedback.  Authors with the most compelling proposals will be invited to submit a full manuscript.  

Submit article proposals VIA EMAIL TO:  zfranco@mcw.edu   Please put “JHP Special Issue Proposal” in the subject line.

FIRST DRAFT SUBMISSION:  Accepted proposals will move on to formal submission through the Journal’s Scholar One online submission portal. Guidelines for authors can be found at: https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/journal-of-humanistic-psychology/journal200951#submission-guidelines

JOURNAL REVIEW PROCESS:  All first draft submissions will go through formal peer review, including at least one external reviewer, guest editor review, and review from other submitting authors where authors do not have conflicts of interest.  All submitting authors should expect to provide at least one review of another article.

ONLINE AHEAD OF PRINT:  Because of the number of articles currently in production at JHP and issues ahead of this one, authors are cautioned that final print production may be substantially delayed.  However, JHP publishes all accepted articles rapidly in online ahead of print format.  The review schedule for this special issue is aggressive, in part to ensure that accepted articles are available online as quickly as possible - both to address professional needs of the authors and to make information in the special issue available for ongoing recovery efforts.  By submitting to this venue, authors acknowledge that final print production may follow at a substantially later date.

STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS:  Undergraduate students, graduate students, community partners and other groups who have been substantively involved in a COVID-19 response effort are welcome to submit as lead or supporting authors.  The guest editors emphasize the importance of the role of mentorship into formal academic discourse and inclusion of multiple, non-traditional stakeholder types as contributors.

EDITORIAL COLLABORATION SUGGESTIONS:  Because of the constraints of the number of articles that can be included for the special issue, we may suggest that author groups with no prior collaboration experience seriously consider presenting multiple case studies as a single paper.  You are free to decline this suggestion, but doing so may decrease the chances of your work being included because of space considerations.  While authors may initially be uncomfortable with such collaborations, the resulting case comparison work is often more powerful, and ends up being heavily cited in the field.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE

-- October 1, 2021 - Preliminary article proposal due (email submission)

-- December 1, 2021 - First draft manuscript due (JHP Scholar One system)

-- February 1, 2022 - Reviewer Feedback completed

-- April 1, 2022 - Final version submitted

INFORMATION ABOUT JHP:

The Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JHP) is an interdisciplinary forum for contributions, controversies and diverse statements pertaining to humanistic psychology. It addresses personal growth, interpersonal encounters, social problems and philosophical issues. An international journal of human potential, self-actualization, the search for meaning and social change, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology was founded by Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich in 1961. It is the official journal of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.

Publisher: SAGE Journals

JHP Editor In Chief:

Sarah Kamens, PhD

This CFP is also available online:

Note that this CFP may be updated with additional information.