The journal invites submissions for the upcoming Themed Issue “Decolonial Dialogues from Mauritius”, which will be Guest Edited by Drs. Nikhita Obeegadoo, Kumari Issur, Patricia Lee Men Chin and Dany Adone.

The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2025. 

Despite the decolonization processes of the twentieth century, minds, institutions and knowledge practices around the globe continue to be shackled by colonial logic. After all, there remains a key difference between “decolonization” and “decoloniality”: While the former refers to the reversal and dismantling of ongoing colonial hierarchies and patterns, the latter refers to radical and creative new ways of thinking, being, and experiencing the world. Scholars from across the Global South, such as Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Maria Lugones, Frantz Fanon and Ngūgĩ wa Thiong'o, have made brilliant contributions to the development of decolonial thought: From their work, we see how the decentering of colonial methodologies and frameworks are not only deconstructive endeavors, but also founts of renewed approaches to languages, cultures and worldviews. 

In this volume, we seek to create a conversation around decolonial theories and practices from and within the Mauritian archipelago, an Indian Ocean space characterized by palimpsestic histories of colonialism, slavery, indenture, and ecological upheaval. Rooting ourselves in the multilingual and multicultural, and yet still deeply unequal, realities of the archipelago, we ask: How are ideological constructs rooted in a colonial set-up dismantled and alternative forms of knowledges and discourses revitalized? What new critical toolkits and conceptual frameworks allow us to trace contemporary evolutions in thought? How do these issues tie up with or translate into public debate?

We would like to invite essays along, but not necessarily limited to, the following themes in the Mauritian context, including Mauritian literature(s), culture(s) and public discourse:

• Rethinking postcolonial and decolonial identities 
• Deconstructing prevalent imaginaries and stereotypes
• Representations of “communautés” and “créolité(s)” 
• New feminist imaginations 
• New linguistic and cultural planning policies 
• The role of “ancestral” languages beyond colonial frameworks 
• Principles and practices of “equity”, “diversity” and “inclusion” within and beyond Mauritian academia 
• Museal sites and practices

This special issue welcomes a diversity of perspectives and encourages submissions from early career researchers. Authors have the option to submit any of the following article types:

Article type	Length	Abstract required	Description
Article	6,000-8,000 words	Yes	Presents original research findings according to the typical research article format.

Submission guidelines

Submissions should be written in accessible language for a wide readership across and beyond the humanities. Articles will be peer reviewed for both content and style. Articles will appear digitally and open access in the journal. 

All submissions should be made through the Public Humanities online peer review system. Authors 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.  

Contacts 

Dr. Nikhita Obeegadoo: nikhitao@uchicago.edu

Dr. Patricia Lee Men Chin: leemenchin@dal.ca

To ensure a timely response, please ensure that all questions are addressed to both email addresses.

Questions regarding peer review can be sent to the Public Humanities inbox at publichumanities@cambridge.org.

Guest editors

Nikhita Obeegadoo is Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Chicago. She holds a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, and has previously taught world literatures at the University of British Columbia. Her research and teaching interests include contemporary literatures of oceans and archipelagos, ecocritical studies of the Global South, the medical humanities, and the link between literature and (the blind spots of) history. Her work has been published in Comparative Literature, Nouvelles Études Francophones and Monsoon: Journal of the Indian Ocean Rim. She was born and grew up in Mauritius.

Kumari Issur is Associate Professor at the University of Mauritius and member of the department of French Studies since 1994. She holds a PhD in Comparative Francophone Literatures of the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean from Université Paris 13. Her research interests include Mauritian Literature in all languages, slave and indenture literature, myths and legends of the Indian Ocean, globalisation, transculturalism, Hindi cinema, oceanic humanities and more. She has published a large number of articles in these fields and has (co-)edited 10 books and journal issues. In 2017, the French Government awarded her the prestigious Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Patricia Lee Men Chin is a University Teaching Fellow at Dalhousie University. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and is actively involved in curriculum development, course planning, textbook development and teaching supervision of doctoral students.

Dany Adone is Chair of Applied English Linguistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Australian Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany. In Australia, she is also an Adjunct Professor at the College of Indigenous Futures, Arts & Society at CDU, and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Her current research projects focus on Decolonising Linguistics, Environmental Justice, Yolŋu Ethnoecology and Indigenous Sign Languages of Australia. Recent publications include ‘Indigenous Australia in the Anthropocene’, a Special Issue of the Australian Studies Journal (2024) and ‘Decolonizing Research Methodologies: Insights from Research on Indigenous Sign Languages of Australia’ (2020).