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.
Camera Obscura
For those interested in publishing articles in visual studies with a feminist approach.
Camera Obscura is one of the premier journals on visual/media culture and an academy bastion in the field. In their About section, Camera Obscura defines itself as a curator of works that “engage with current academic and popular discourses in feminism, culture, and media studies”, which certainly rings true based on their selections of texts. The journal frequently publishes “articles in areas such as the conjunctions of gender, race, class, and sexuality with audiovisual culture; new histories and theories of film, television, video, and digital media; and politically engaged approaches to a range of media practices.”
Articles are written with a general but well educated audience in mind, which is to say that field specific jargon is minimal or if included, defined clearly. Writing is clear and avoids circuitous structures. For the most part, articles stated their arguments early one (usually in a clearly defined sentence or paragraph) and did spend some time on a lit review in at least one section, and usually have a close reading of the media production in question.
If longer articles aren’t your jag, consider this: Camera Obscura also welcomes short pieces for their “In Practice” section, of which pieces range from 750-2500 words. This section is meant to encourage and emphasize a more playful engagement with form and critical content (submissions don’t shy away from the creative) and—the best part—is open to all submissions, not just solicited ones as many small sections in journals tend to be.
Useful for Submission
Word Count: 6500-9000 words (25-35 pages), including endnotes; 750-2500 for “In Practice”
Issues per year: 3
Current volume number in 2017: Vol. 32, 1
Articles per year: 5 articles, 5 “In Practice” (8 articles if a special issue)
Citation style: The Chicago Style, 16th edition
Abstract length (if required): N/A
Relevant Editors: Editors | Lalitha Gopalan, University of Texas at Austin; Lynne Joyrich, Brown University;
Homay King, Bryn Mawr College; Bliss Cua Lim, University of California, Irvine; Constance Penley,
University of California, Santa Barbara; Tess Takahashi, York University; Patricia White, Swarthmore
College; Sharon Willis, University of Rochester
About Wendy Belcher
