Reviews of Peer-Reviewed Journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences

We give you the scuttlebutt on academic journals—aiding you in selecting the right journal for publication—in reviews that are sometimes snarky, sometimes lengthy, always helpful. Written by Princeton University graduate students and Wendy Laura Belcher.

Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society

For social-justice-minded African Americanists and black studies scholars interested in publishing articles that address the intellectual debates of scholars and activists within the modern African diaspora.

Souls was inspired by the work of W.E.B. Du Bois. I take this to mean to several things. One, it is interdisciplinary in nature. The journal publishes articles both from a wide range of fields and disciplines as well as many that are themselves inter- and transdisciplinary. Two, it is for and by scholar-activists. Many contributors are explicit about their political commitments and how they inform their scholarship. And three, while it features scholarship on the diaspora, there is an emphasis on the U.S. Ultimately, Souls publishes scholarship representing a critical black studies – analytical and theoretical works in the living tradition of scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois – that seeks to inform and transform black life and history. (NF)

Souls “favors clearly written articles free of excessive academic jargon and readily accessible to a broad audience. Furthermore, articles should include the elements of ‘description,’ ‘correction,’ and/or ‘prescription’: thickly, richly detailed descriptions of contemporary black life and culture; corrective and analytical engagements with theories and concepts that reproduce racial inequality in all of its forms; and/or an analysis that presents clear alternatives or possibilities for social change.”

Useful for Submission

Word Count: minimum of 2,500 words and no longer than 8,500 words, excluding endnotes.

Issues per year: 4

Current volume number in 2017: 19

Articles per year: appr. 8 articles + 1 review article in each issue; around 32 articles a year

Citation style: Chicago

Abstract length (if required): a 3-5 sentence bio, abstract of 100 words or less, and a brief list of key words

Upcoming special issues (if available): N/A

Relevant Editors: Barbara Ransby (U of Illionois, Chicago); Martha Biondi (Northwestern University); Cathy J. Cohen (University of Chicago); Michael C. Dawson (University of Chicago); Cedric Johnson (U of Illinois, Chicago); Beth Richie (U of Illinois, Chicago), Roderick Ferguson (U of Illinois, Chicago), Helen Heran Jun (U of Illinois, Chicago); Lynette A. Jackson (U of Illinois, Chicago); Jane Rhodes (U of Illinois, Chicago)

 

About Wendy Belcher

Associate Professor, Princeton University, Department of Comparative Literature and the Center for African American Studies. Author of Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. Instructor of Deep Reading Journals as Publishing Praxis.

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This entry was posted on April 3, 2017 in African American Journals, Humanities Journals, Interdiscplinary Journals.