Public Humanities is a new international open access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. The journal invites proposals for themed issues that pose urgent questions on contemporary public issues that require rigorous and relevant humanities knowledge.
The journal invites submissions to its upcoming Themed Issue The Harlem Renaissance and Its Publics: A Centennial Celebration, which will be edited by Darryl Dickson-Carr and Yolanda Mackey.
The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2025.
Description
Scholars have often debated when the era of the New Negro began and ended, what defines it, who should be included in its scope, and the movement’s ultimate effect on culture. They agree that this cultural movement’s most significant and storied events took place between 1924 and 1926. Beginning in 2024, multiple cultural institutions are celebrating the centennial of the New Negro or Harlem Renaissance (ca. 1919-1940). This issue joins other institutions in looking back at not only the New Negro Renaissance but also the development of views about the movement and its influence on African American and American culture and on the public humanities. Upending the argument that the New Negro Renaissance was by and for elites, the essays in this issue will show how it engaged different publics, whether in contemporary times or in its effects on later movements.
The issue will be a rendezvous for thinkers and doers to address the status and stakes of public humanities today—however that term is understood. Authors will connect, share knowledge, and set an agenda for the future of an emerging field.
To help frame the discussion on the centennial celebration of the New Negro Renaissance, we invite essays that speak to the following topics:
- Harlem Renaissance poetry and poetics
- Visual Arts and the New Negro Renaissance
- Posthumously published and/or “rejected” literature
- The New Negro Renaissance in the literary imagination
- Digital Humanities and Pedagogy
- Children’s Literature and the New Negro Renaissance
- Transnational and Diasporic lens of the movement
- Queer Black Identity/The New Negro Renaissance as a Queer Space
- Women of the New Negro Renaissance
Guest edited by Darryl Dickson-Carr and Yolanda Mackey, the issue will open with a collaborative essay situating the continued historical significance of the Renaissance for a broader audience. We seek contributions from scholars, archivists, curators, poets, public intellectuals, and researchers.
Submission guidelines
All submissions should be made through the Public Humanities online peer review system. Author should consult the journal’s Author Instructions prior to submission.
All authors will be required to declare any funding and/or competing interests upon submission. See the journal’s Publishing Ethics guidelines for more information.
Please see the journal's author instructions for information on article formats offered by Public Humanities.
Contacts
Guest Editor names: Darryl Dickson-Carr and Yolanda Mackey
Email addresses: dcarr@mail.smu.edu and yam5028@psu.edu.
Questions regarding peer review can be sent to the Public Humanities inbox at publichumanities@cambridge.org.