Call for Blogs by NALSAR’s The Language Rights Blog: Rolling Submissions

Understanding the meaning of ‘language’ and its impact is crucial to recognize its power and how it shapes the world around us. Language is much more than a means of communication. It is intrinsically linked to the development of individual consciousness and a sense of group/cultural identity.

In a world where languages are not treated equally, a person’s ability to speak the dominant language becomes a privilege. Language privilege determines the accommodation of a linguistic minority in terms of access to social, political and educational institutions. It further intersects with privileges revolving around race, nation and social class consequently manifesting into a site of discrimination and exclusion for the minority languages. It is essential thereby that the right to use one’s language in private as well as public spheres is protected.

The Language Rights Blog aims to highlight the prejudice experienced by the linguistically marginalised and engage with a multidisciplinary approach to language and language rights.

Theme

Submissions from students, academicians and language rights enthusiasts are encouraged, in the following areas:

Language Rights and Education
Language Rights, Access and Participation
Language Rights and Health
Language Rights and the Law
Language Rights and Identity
Language Rights and Culture
Language Rights and Cognition
Language Rights and Employment
Language Rights and Labour
Language Rights and Disability
Language Rights and Discrimination
Language Rights and Social Justice
Language Rights and Genocide
Language Rights, Accent and Discrimination
Language Rights and Conflict

Submission Guidelines

Types of Submissions

BOOK REVIEWS: A book review must contain a critical review of any book pertaining to one or more themes mentioned in the scope of the blog available here. The book itself can be of any language but the review must be in English. The word limit for a book review is 1000 – 1200 words.

CASE COMMENTS: A case comment must have a detailed analysis of the judgement along with the author’s opinion/stance on the same and must directly engage with one or more of the themes mentioned in the scope. The word limit for a case comment is 800-1000 words.

ARTICLES: A research article must have a detailed and comprehensive analysis of any topic related to one or more of the given themes. The word limit for a research article is around 1500 words. If the article is longer than the stipulated word limit and if the editors deem it necessary, the word limit can be expanded.

POLICY ANALYSIS: A policy analysis must contain a thorough analysis of any policy including its formulation, adoption and implementation. It must pertain to one or more of the themes mentioned in the scope. The word limit for the same is 1500 – 2000 words. The word limit may exceed the limit if the analysis is of exceptional quality. In that case, the submission will be published in parts.

Formatting Guidelines

The content should be written in Times New Roman font with a size of 12. Line spacing must be 1.5.
All references must be in the form of hyperlinks in the body of the submission itself. Footnotes must be used for offline sources only.
The body of the email must contain the name, institutional affiliation, title & category of the submission, the contact information of the author(s) and a brief description of the submission.

Review Process

As per their 2-stage review process, the Editorial Board may take up to 7 days to provide comments on the submission. Any delay shall be notified to the authors.

Submisson Policy

The blog follows a rolling submissions policy. Hence, there is no deadline to submit articles.
The submission should be an original work of the author and not under consideration for publication in any other journal or blog. Submissions will be screened for plagiarism.
Co-authorship of maximum of 2 authors is allowed.
The article must be submitted in an MS- Word Document to tlrb@nalsar.ac.in.The subject of the email should be ‘SUBMISSION – TITLE.’ The Editorial Board shall send an acknowledgement email upon receiving the article. The author(s) are requested to resend the submission if they do not receive an acknowledgement.
Submissions may be accepted/rejected based solely at the discretion of the Editorial Board. In relation to all disputes, the decision of the Editorial Board shall be final and binding.
The blog allows reposting of the published blog posts on other platforms. The second publication must first acknowledge the publication on this blog by stating: ‘First posted on The Language Rights Blog on dd/mm/yyyy.’