CFP: The Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast Legacy: 20 Years of Community & Technology Reflections, Lessons, and Future Making
CFP: The Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast Legacy: 20 Years of Community & Technology Reflections, Lessons, and Future Making
This year (2025) marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history—Hurricane Katrina. As we approach this day, there is an urgent need to reflect on the lasting impacts of the storm, its aftermath, and the lessons learned over the past two decades especially as it relates to disasters, information, society, and technology. This focus on the impact of technology and information calls attention to the various states of transition that were needed, came about, or are still in flux as a result of Katrina. Technology as an avenue for both positive and negative changes depends on human and mechanical systems, many of which may need to function almost perfectly during extreme scenarios like natural disasters.
Disaster informatics, an interdisciplinary field that combines disaster studies and information systems research, encourages future investigations on how disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation intertwine with computer and information science, emergency management, social science, policy, and data science to improve the usefulness, effectiveness, and pitfalls of disaster-related decision-making systems, and operations. Disaster informatics as a growing field today looks to define and align itself with other similar areas such as community or crisis informatics with this special issue looking to position technology as an extension of community support systems and methods of empowerment.
This call for proposals invites scholars, practitioners, and community members to submit proposals for a special JCLIS issue exploring the multifaceted ICT dimensions of Hurricane Katrina’s legacy in the Gulf Coast.
Theme and Scope:
This call aims to provide a platform for diverse voices and interdisciplinary scholarship to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about one of the most significant events in recent U.S. history. We welcome submissions that challenge, expand, and deepen our understanding of the lessons and legacies of this pivotal moment in time. Strong proposals will touch on a range of topics related to the Gulf Coast region, populations, and environments affected by Hurricane Katrina or building off lessons learned during and after the storm, including but not limited to:
Data Collection and Management- Big Disasters Data: How has or was large-scale data, such as social media posts, satellite imagery, sensor data, or crowdsourced information used to monitor real time disasters or their aftermath?
- Data Standards and Interoperability: How can data from various sources (e.g., government agencies, NGOs, and private sector) can be integrated, shared, and analyzed effectively across systems and users? How is labor distributed across this type of work?
- Geospatial Data: What use(s) do Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing technologies provide to map disaster areas, analyze damage or displacement, or to plan response efforts?
- Modeling and Prediction: What are the impacts of predictive models and Artificial Intelligence technologies when used to forecast natural disasters like drought, tornadoes, hurricanes, or floods, or other extreme weather?
- Simulation and Modeling: What should be included in decision support systems that simulate disaster scenarios (e.g., evacuation models, resource allocation, and traffic management)?
- Mobile Applications: How has the role of smartphones and apps in disseminating disaster warnings and critical information to individuals and communities changed?
- Social Media Analysis: How have social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for situational awareness, public sentiment, and coordination during disasters. How do they mimic or expand on earlier technologies like blogs or media sites?
- Communication Systems: What best practices were developed or tested when communicating with the public, emergency responders, and the media before, during and after a disaster, especially in areas with limited infrastructure.
- Crowdsourcing and Participatory Science: What new ways or systems emerged when engaging the public to collect data, report on conditions, or participate in disaster mapping efforts?
- Coordination and Logistics: What opportunities do digital platforms (e.g., open data platforms) provide for coordinating response efforts between governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international aid agencies.
- Decisions and Logistics: What approaches are needed when establishing response logistics especially in the distribution of relief supplies, personnel, and other resources.
- Supply Chain Management: How can agencies ensure efficient and timely delivery of food, medicine, and other essential supplies to affected areas even during political turmoil?
- Volunteering and Crowd Relief: How and when do technology platforms help when organizing volunteers, tasks, and donations?
- Disaster Impact Assessment: How are post-disaster assessments done using active and historic damage reports and community feedback to evaluate the impact of a disaster on infrastructure, ecologies, economy, and communities?
- Building Community Adaptability: How have affected cities and towns adapted their infrastructure and planning to withstand future disasters? What lessons have been learned, and how can other places apply them?
- Individual and Communal Empowerment: How has technology been used to empower local communities in disaster-prone areas to prepare for and respond to disasters.
- Long-term Recovery: What technologies aid in rebuilding community connections, infrastructure, restoring basic services, and facilitating social recovery after a disaster?
- Data Privacy: What ethical considerations exist as it relates to the collection, storage, and use of personal or familial data during disasters, particularly with the rise of GPS enabled tracking technologies, crowdsourced data and artificial intelligence aggregate data?
- Security of Digital Systems: What infrastructures or public goods are necessary to fortify security and sustainability of information systems used during disasters, especially against cyberattacks? How do these hold up against cyberattacks and technical vulnerabilities?
- Equity in Disaster Response: How are agencies, funding institutions, or communities addressing disparities in access to technology, information, and resources for different populations, particularly low-income, differently abled, or marginalized communities?
- Drones and Robotics: How has the use of surveillance prone technologies like drones been used for damage assessment, insurance litigation, search operations, and delivery or monitoring of supplies, and search-and-rescue missions in hazardous scenarios?
- Infrastructure Durability: How have ICT infrastructure (e.g., broadband, wireless networks, power grids) withstood or contributed to disasters especially those experiencing multiple damages within short periods of time?
- Climate Impact Assessment: How has the integration of climate change projections with disaster risk modeling helped mitigate future disaster risks?
- Disaster Preparedness for Climate Change: How can technology be used to design strategies for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in vulnerable regions like the Gulf Coast.
- Social and environmental histories: How has Katrina shaped conversations on race, exploitive industries, poverty, and environmental justice? What progress has been made in addressing these issues, and where do gaps persist?
- Simulation Training: How can technology and virtual environments be used to train emergency responders, community organizers, and volunteers on disaster preparedness and response.
- Public Awareness and Education: How is technology used to educate the public about disaster risks, preparedness measures, and response strategies?
- Memorialization and Trauma: How was the media’s portrayal of Hurricane Katrina, both in real-time and in the years that followed, shaped by narratives of race, class, and government failure? How has public perception and survivor recall of the disaster evolved over time?
- Disaster Risk Reduction Policies: What is the role of disaster informatics in shaping public policy around disaster risk management and climate change adaptation? How can deteriorating or abandoned policies be implemented in politically charged periods?
- Regulatory and Legal Frameworks: What policies and frameworks exist that govern the use of technology and data in disaster management, including issues related to data sharing, cross-border cooperation, and disaster response coordination?
- Policy Implementation and Reform: How have disaster management policies evolved since Katrina? What progress has been made in the areas of preparedness, response, and recovery? What challenges remain in improving these systems?
- Psychological Support Systems: What is the role of digital technologies in providing mental health support to disaster survivors, including medical record retrieval, telemedicine and online counseling services?
- Social Networks & Displacement: How is the use of technology helping or hurting survivors and communities to cope with loss, disconnection to place, and physical or psychological trauma. How have physical, emotional, and cultural recovery efforts intertwined?
- Katrina’s Ecological Impact: What has been learned about the intersection of climate change, technology obsolescence, and environmental degradation in the two decades following the storm?
Proposal Guidelines
We invite both individual and collaborative proposals for articles, artistic pieces, or written and visual toolkits that engage critically with these themes, questions, or other relevant aspects of Katrina’s legacy. Submissions should be experience or research-based and may include theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented perspectives.
We encourage proposals from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to information studies, environmental studies, disaster and crisis studies, geography and urban planning, sociology, community organization, political science, media studies, history, public health, and feminist and cultural studies.
Accepted authors will also be invited to attend virtual community writing sessions in the summer of 2025 to help with writing, editing, and reflecting on the selected work.
Abstracts (up to 500 words) are due by June 1, 2025.
Full proposals (up to 3,000 words, including references) are due by August 29, 2025.
All submissions will undergo a peer-review process. Suggested reviewers encouraged.
Important Dates
Abstract Submission Deadline: June 1st, 2025 (start of Hurricane Season)
Summer Writing Support Sessions: June - Aug, 2025
Full Proposal Submission Deadline: August 24, 2025
Revisions Due: November 30, 2025 (end of hurricane season)
Expected Full Publication Date: August 24, 2026
Submission Instructions
Please submit your abstracts directly to the editor Itza A. Carbajal at itzac@uw.edu.
We look forward to receiving your contributions and engaging in this timely and essential reflection on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
