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 for the upcoming Themed Issue Palestine as Paradigm, which will be Guest Edited by Eman Abdelhadi.
The deadline for submissions is March 1st, 2025.
Description
This themed issue asks scholars, authors, artists, and movement intellectuals to reflect on how recent developments in Palestine and the global reaction to them has shifted the paradigms by which we think of the world and by which we imagine Palestinian futures.
Over the past year, Palestinian life in Gaza, the West Bank, and the Occupied Territories has been upended, and the conflict has bled into Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria with the threat of escalation to Iran ever present. Scholars now estimate the death toll in Gaza alone is approaching 300,000.
The reaction has been global; Palestine has been on the forefront of the geopolitical stage. Palestinians in the diaspora—from San Francisco to Madrid—have led millions into the streets in solidarity with Palestine. Campuses across the world saw hundreds of encampments, building occupations, and other protests over complicity with the Israeli military and its actions. South Africa brought Israel before the International Criminal Court of Justice, accusing it of committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Palestine has been a stress test of the post-World War II, American-led liberal world order. Within the US and Western Europe, Palestine has exposed contradictions in institutional and governmental commitment to values like democracy, free speech, equality, the right to assemble, and the right to representation. On the geopolitical stage, Palestine has exposed the weaknesses of the human rights paradigm and the continuing hegemony of the United States—Israel’s most stalwart ally and funder—over global politics.
This themed issue invites contributions that explore:
- The roadmap to Palestinian liberation – how has this been redrawn?
- What is next for the Palestine solidarity movement in the US, and outside?
- The literary sector and the question of Palestine
- Global labor and the question of Palestine
- Political economic prospects for a free Palestine
- Legacy media and the fight for Palestine
- The limits and possibilities of international law in relation to Palestine
- Academic and cultural boycotts of Israel
- Global Judaism after Zionism
- Palestinian diasporic mobilizations
- Visualizing Palestine (including images, graphics, and other multi-media forms that draw from scholarly research)
- How has Palestine shifted domestic, regional, and global politics?
- Given that the fate of Israel and Palestine are intertwined with US politics, how has the US political arena transformed over the past year in response to events in Gaza?
- How has Palestine solidarity shifted geopolitical conversations and the perceived longevity of global institutions like the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court?
Submission guidelines
The editor is open to multimedia submissions that include images, infographics and art. Submissions should be written in accessible language for a wide readership across and beyond the humanities. Submissions will be peer reviewed for both content and style and will appear digitally and open access in the journal.
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.
Contacts
Eman Abdelhadi; abdelhadi@uchicago.edu
Questions regarding peer review can be sent to the Public Humanities inbox at publichumanities@cambridge.org