Call for Submissions: Envisioning Climate Migration in Great Lakes Cities
Infill examines themes in contemporary urban design, architecture, and planning. Past volumes have addressed shrinking cities, temporary urbanism, urban hydrology, urban design narratives, historic preservation, cold climate cities, and other topics.
Urban Infill #9 will explore how climate change could impact population, land use patterns, and urban design approaches in Great Lakes cities. Some cities in the Great Lakes region have been identified as potential “climate havens”–places where people might move to avoid hazards associated with climate change such as hurricanes, sea level rise, extreme heat, and wildfires.
No one knows for sure how many people in the United States may need to move due to the effects of climate change. Since the Great Lakes region has ample access to fresh water and a relatively stable climate, cities around the Great Lakes could experience population growth due to climate migration. But when and to what extent this will happen remains to be seen.
The CUDC, in collaboration with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, invite designers, planners, writers, and artists to submit their work for this publication. Our goal is not to advance a predetermined vision of Great Lakes cities as climate havens, but to explore the ambiguities and uncertainties inherent in a changing climate. We recognize there will be no true winners or losers when it comes to climate change, but rather a series of complex interrelationships and competing needs.
We’re interested in Great Lakes-focused work, and also approaches to climate migration from other parts of the world that may have lessons for our region.
We are seeking submissions that address one or more of these themes:
EQUITY Privileged versus forced migration, the risks of climate gentrification, the needs of existing and historically underserved communities, Indigenous land and water rights.
DESIGN NARRATIVES Drawings, diagrams, and stories that explore future scenarios and speculate about the possibilities of climate migration in tangible and detailed ways.
STRATEGIES & INDICATORS How can communities plan for the possibilities of climate migration? How will we know if climate migration is underway and to what extent? What are the tipping points and triggers for taking action and shifting gears as we see how things are playing out?
Submission Guidelines:
Submissions may include images, graphics, diagrams, and/or text. Text should not exceed 1,500 words. Image-oriented pieces are limited to what can be legible on up to six pages of the journal. Page format is 8.5” square.
We will only consider finished work. Please do not submit an abstract, proposal or outline. If your piece is accepted for publication by the Urban Infill editorial board, you will have an opportunity to make revisions as needed.
Please include the author’s name(s), affiliation, mailing address, email address, and short biography on the first page of the submission.
Titles should be concise and descriptive of your work.
Text should be written in an accessible, jargon-free style for an informed general audience.
Please avoid footnotes or endnotes; incorporate references into the text.
For issues of style, we use The Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press).
Images in any format (.jpg, .tif, .pdf, etc.) are welcome. Please include low-resolution versions of your images with your initial submission.
Please send your work to cudc@kent.edu. Include “Urban Infill” in the subject line of your email.
Important Dates:
Submissions due: 10 April 2024
Notification to selected contributors, with editorial comments: 1 May 2024
Final edits due: 24 May 2024
Expected publication: September 2024
Questions?
Please contact the Urban Infill editorial team at cudc@kent.edu.