Call out for Chapters!

We are delighted to share this call out for contributions to a new edited collection published by Routledge, ‘Activating Unlearning through Dance’.

The co-editors Sally Doughty, Penny Smith & Sue Smith take an inter-disciplinary approach bringing together dance and social science scholarship. We work across the disciplines of dance pedagogy and production, and social science spanning education, policy and health. 

Co-editors Doughty and Smith have previously proposed unlearning as a new framing for innovations in inclusive dance practices to reposition personal and political power dynamics of engagement (2023). This framing is rooted in the realities of developing authentically inclusive dance practice that is shaped by lived experience, background, community, and the realities of instigating real systemic change.

This edited collection aims to build on this framing to explore unlearning across diverse professional, creative, and participatory practices, including practice research and interdisciplinary or cross-sector activities that bridge professional and community contexts. The nomenclature and theoretical reasoning around unlearning in dance are yet to be fully explored.

This book aims to address that gap by drawing from practitioners, facilitators, makers, students, participants and scholars that exemplify how unlearning can support us to challenge and question cycles of activity and outcomes that may perpetuate particular activities, outcomes and communities of participation. 

Timeline:

• Chapter proposals submitted: 23 January 2026 
• Notification of chapter acceptance: by 27 February 2026 
• Full chapter submission deadline: 20 August 2026 
• Revisions/edits received from authors by: January 2027 
• Full manuscript submitted to Routledge: Spring/summer 2027 

Email for the full call out, more details and examples of the range of contributions we invite. We encourage various formats for contributions to the book, including:

• Shorter essays /reflections/ conversations / provocations of 3000 words 
• Longer essays of between 6000 - 8000 words 
• Embedded hyperlinks to alternative formats eg BSL, video, audio etc. 

We'd love to hear from you:

Sally Doughty: sdoughty@dmu.ac.uk

Penny Smith: Penny.Smith@wbs.ac.uk

Sue Smith: sue.Smith@falmouth.ac.uk