Kairos

Open Issue

30.2 Spring 2026

Logging On - Spring 2026

Chris Andrews and Erin Bahl, Editors

It’s with a great deal of humility and a deep spirit of service for the journal and the field(s) it represents and publishes that we step into the role of co-Editors of Kairos. The past few months have been a period of major transition for our journal, with both Cheryl Ball and Michael Faris stepping away. Michael has been a significant force for good in his leadership of the journal over the last five years, and his precise attention to detail and ability to make sticky decisions ethically and carefully will be absolutely missed. Also, he gives good Zoom face. It is hard to encapsulate Cheryl’s contributions over the past twenty-five years in a few words here. She has been much more than a journal editor: a mentor, a scholar, a leader, a collaborator, a friend, indeed a champion of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy throughout her time at Kairos. It was hard enough when Cheryl shared her retirement timeline with us a couple of years ago; when Michael announced he was also stepping down, we really considered melting down for a bit. It’s a hard act to follow, and we’ve definitely been watching and feeling every email from Cheryl that came through saying farewell to the Editorial Board or making sure so-and-so was set up with forwarding in the lead-up to this issue.

In his Logging On/Logging Off in the previous issue, Michael shared a mixture of pessimism and optimism. The world can get fukd, but Kairos is going to be okay. Erin and Chris agree—mostly because we’re not alone or having to figure this out by ourselves. (And thank Rhetorica!) We’re glad to share leadership with Elizabeth, who has already been doing excellent work herding the production cats as Managing Editor, and of course Doug is here to lead and mentor, to occasionally tell us to chill out, and yes, to fix the server when it crashes.

When the two of us were asked/invited to be coeditors, we both immediately said, “I’ll only do it if s/he will still be doing it with me.” We are excited to share in the work of Kairos’s continued commitments: our dedication to academic quality in peer review and editorial production, our publication and promotion of work that enacts its scholarly argument by integrating text, code, and design, our leadership in open access scholarship, our shared spirit of mentorship and getting shit done, and our active labor to sustain anti-racist publishing practices.

Most of all, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of scholarship in our field with you! So, you know, reach out to us today with your inquiry or submission!

In This Issue

Speaking of pushing scholarly boundaries, we’re excited to introduce you to this issue’s six webtexts, with a shoutout to the production juggernaut that is the Kairos team.

Positioned squarely within the focal intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy, our Topoi piece in this issue is Manuel Piña’s “Quantum Ontologies: Beyond Efficiency in Digital Learning Spaces.” In this webtext, Piña “explores the digital learning environment as ontologically multiple, a place that can be simultaneously enacted and experienced in terms of instructional expediency, disconnection, and social justice” (Abstract), with a particular focus on Blackboard. The webtext’s nonlinear organization and beautifully curated image gallery offers a designed-based demonstration of the “entanglements” Piña explores across the essay.

Taking up the thread of multiple routes of occupying space-time environments (particularly with an emphasis on access and activism), we’re thrilled to be the home for the PraxisWiki webtext “Sharing Disabled Wisdom: Five Moves Toward Composing Conference Accessibility Guides” by Katie Bramlett, Margaret Fink, Ruth Osorio, and Ada Hubrig. Although it’s increasingly common for conferences in the field to provide access guides, the authors recognize firsthand “the lack of theory and practical wisdom on creating guides” (Introduction), and they offer five moves grounded in their own experiences to support future creators in navigating both the possibilities and challenges rooted in the ongoing process of increasing access to disciplinary spaces.

Joining Bramlett et al.’s exploration of occupying (and disrupting) conference spaces, Hannah Locher and Olivia Rowland introduce us to Creatures: An Experiment in New Materialist Rhetorics” in one of two Disputatio webtexts. As crafters, Locher and Rowland share their practice of crocheting critters and offering them at scholarly gatherings such as FemRhet, CCCC, RSA, and DMAC, among others. Situating their practice amidst new materialist conversations on craft and feminized labor, they frame the project as “an avenue for encouraging comfort and community amongst conference attendees within rhetoric and writing studies” (“What is Conference Creatures?”). Side note from Erin: Also, the critters are freaking *adorable*, and I’m on a mission to find them at the next conference. Side side note from Chris: Ha, ha, ha! I have an official Conference Creatures sticker already!

Likewise informed by a spirit of playful, critical crafting, our second Disputatio webtext is Anastasia Salter’s “AI Admin: Provocations through Generated Play”. Salter offers two games that explore the challenges of navigating AI in the current academic landscape, situated in the perspectives of writing program admin and DH center director, and critically reflects on the process of using AI tools to develop these interactive experiences. As Salter notes, “The resulting artifacts raise questions about agency, creativity, and labor in an age of computational collaboration” and reflect both the intrigue and exhaustion involved in untangling these unfolding conversations for critical digital makers.

Our reviews close out this issue with questions on how we enter into conversational relationship with both fellow writing instructors and the more-than-human world around us. Natasha Whitton reviews Amy D. Propen’s At Home in the Anthropocene (The Ohio State University Press, 2022), using videos to highlight the narrative voices and spaces featured in the collected chapters. Crystal VanKooten takes an audio approach to (literally) enter into remixed conversation with authors’ podcasted voices in Shane Wood’s Teachers Talking Writing: Perspectives on Places, Pedagogies, and Programs (WAC Clearinghouse, 2023).

Comings and Goings

We have a handful of staff changes to announce with this issue. Assistant Editors Luke Meyer and Cam Cavaliere are stepping away from Kairos; Cam joined the team in 2023 and Luke started with the journal in August 2024— both have been an important part of our production team since. Cam also served on the Communications editorial team and worked hard to maintain the journal’s social media and listserv presence. We are grateful to both Cam and Luke for their time and many contributions to Kairos, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. We look forward to announcing our new social media/communications editor very soon!

Announcements

• On that note, this spring, Kairos is hiring multiple Assistant Editors to produce the bi-annual journal. Assistant Editors (AEs) are responsible for collaboratively copy- and design-editing accepted webtexts, wiki entries, and associated media for publication with attention to style, accessibility, readability, and usability. Kairos uses a modified APA style and a specific technical style sheet that is provided on our website and reviewed during on-the-job training for new AEs. You can read more about this position, including details about how to apply, in our job ad—and we always welcome queries prior to the February 15, 2026 deadline.
• 2026 Kairos Awards. Reminder that nominations for Kairos awards—Best Webtext, the John Lovas Award, the Bill Hart-Davidson Mentoring Award, and the Awards for Graduate Student and Contingent Faculty—are due by March 15, 2026. We will be posting nomination information on our socials between now and then, if you need the extra reminder.
• We are also accepting applications for the Gail E. Hawisher & Cynthia L. Selfe Caring for the Future Scholarship, which provides financial support to an underrepresented first-time Computers and Writing attendee, often a graduate student, to facilitate building interest in the computers and writing discipline. (Congrats again to our 2025 winner Thais Rodrigues Cons, PhD student at the University of Arizona!) This scholarship is funded by donations from C&W-related scholar and practitioner donations, along with sponsorship by annual C&W hosts! Please consider donating to help sustain the viability of this scholarship. Send funds via Venmo to @Cheryl-Ball-1 (mark as HSCF) or contact kairosrtp@gmail.com for more donation options (and although Cheryl has stepped away from her editorial role, she is still helping Kairos manage its finances for the foreseeable future).
• Fostering Inclusive Peer Review. The work Kairos has done to bring inclusive models of open, collaborative peer review to humanities journal publishing is transformational on a number of fronts. And one of the biggest transformations is in hearing authors, editors, reviewers, and other publishers continually ask us what “developmental editing” is. Spoiler: It’s the way we care for authors in a recursive peer-review process, as writing teachers are wont to do. Our processes at Kairos have made their way into larger disciplinary arenas this year through a Mellon-funded project Cheryl has been working on with the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, called “Re-imagining Peer Review Through a DEI Lens.” The goal of the project is to advance equitable and inclusive practices in peer review and scholarly journal publishing within the humanities. This year, CELJ is conducting a survey on peer review that invites authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers affiliated with humanities journals to share their experiences of peer review and to help the humanities imagine what a different future of peer review might feel like — one in which we move beyond the status quo of double-anonymous review, as most other journals employ, into a scholarly publishing world that is more inclusive, equitable, and diverse! Sign up on the low-traffic announcement list to be the first to find out when the survey goes live, just a few days after we publish this issue.
• Patreon reminder. You can donate to Kairos to support the Hawisher & Selfe Caring for the Future Award through our PayPal, or you can support the journal's other endeavors (server space costs, printing award certificates, etc.) by contributing to to our Patreon. We currently have four levels of Patreon support: You can support the journal for $2, $5, $10, or $20 a month. (Twenty bucks a month is like four lattes! Or two or three avocado toasts! AND you get a Kairos sticker, baseball cap, and latte mug for that level of support!) We want to share big shout-outs to our newest Patreon supporters: Ashanka Kumari, Jessica Nastal, Lynn Reid, Rebecca Kennison, and Zach Beare.
• Kairos DEI Committee Updates (2025). We are doing a full walk of shame this year. We can say lots of things about editorial transitions and staff development, but they come off as excuses. The DEI Committee has been on pause this year as we figure out the best way to sustain this important work among our wide-ranging and constantly changing group of volunteers. This ongoing work remains at the heart of our mission and community at Kairos. Chris will begin working on updates to our Inclusivity Action Plan in the interim, and we expect positive news for the next issue. As a journal, we commit to learning and doing and practicing anti-racist work in scholarly publishing, especially as the world goes up around us. Help keep us accountable by asking questions!

Thank you for being here! That’s all for now, folks—go check out the issue (and send us your webtexts!)