SPECIAL ISSUE ON ‘THE BODY IN POLITICS’

GUEST EDITORS: ERIK BUCY AND DELIA DUMITRESCU

Research from a variety of vantage points is showing how the body matters in politics. As a channel of communication, the body dynamically conveys social information to observers in the form of emotional displays, physical gestures, and tone of voice, while signaling viability and other meaningful status indicators through static cues like height, attractiveness, and physical formidability. At the same time, the body indexes citizen responses to politics. Visual framing via styles of dress or other  adornments to the body further communicate political affiliation and group identity.

Papers and extended abstracts are now being accepted on these and related topics for a specialthemed issue on The Body in Politics for Politics and the Life Sciences, an interdisciplinary journal published by Cambridge University Press. Papers and extended abstracts accepted for the issue will be published in the Fall 2017 issue of the journal. Authors will also be invited to present their papers at the annual meeting of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, to be held April 5, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois just before the Midwest Political Science Association meeting.

Manuscripts for the special issue may analyze the body’s relation to politics from observational, experimental, content analytic, or other empirical frameworks. All methodological approaches arewelcome. However, submissions should be based on empirical findings and must be rigorously researched and clearly written. We are particularly interested in submissions that focus on the  mechanisms of political behavior and support, and which address areas of investigation that are under-researched. Suitable paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Viewer processing of emotional displays by leaders or citizens
• Neuroimaging studies of political persuasion
• Disgust sensitivity and support for authoritarian policies
• Emotional, motivational, and hormonal responses to perceptions of threat
• Psychophysiological responses to leader displays and/or negative image consumption
• Eye-tracking studies of political debates and news coverage of elections
• Empathy, visual portrayals of distress, and support for refugees
• Neural mechanisms underlying empathy for others under conditions of stress
• Evolutionary explanations of intolerance, outgroup perceptions and support for antiimmigration policies
• The body as a topic of political debate and controversy

Contributors submitting full papers should submit research manuscripts that are approximately 30 pages in length. Extended abstracts should be at least 2,500 words and demonstrate that empirical data are available for analysis. Initial submission may use any recognized citation style but final accepted papers must conform to Chicago style.

SUBMISSION

The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday, February 17, 2017. Submitted papers will be blind reviewed and must not have been published elsewhere, either in whole or in part. Please submit manuscripts, preferably in Word or pdf format, to Guest Editors Erik Bucy (erik.bucy@gmail.com) and Delia Dumitrescu (delia.dumitrescu@gmail.com). Queries may be addressed to either guest editor.