CFP: ¡AfroLatinxs Presente!, AfroLatinx Pasados

AfroLatinxs Presente!, AfroLatinx Pasados

Special Issue of Pasados: Recovering History, Imagining Latinidad

Deadline for article submissions: January 5, 2027

AfroLatinx Studies is not an emerging field. It is a field of study with a past that can be traced back to the 15th century and an ongoing political and intellectual project. The recent formation and institutionalization of AfroLatinx studies does not make it new. It is an area of knowledge production rooted in the African diaspora and migration patterns to the United States and hemispherically. Black diasporic epistemologies, archives (material and embodied), and cultural production of AfroLatinx lives have been catalysts to the formation of the field. As AfroLatinx Studies becomes an institutionalized field of study questions like: what is the work of AfroLatinx Studies? What has it been? What should it be?–are central to deepening our understanding of the field. We use these thought-provoking questions to engage with the “pasados” of AfroLatinx Studies.

The definition that Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores present in their introduction to the foundational The Afro-Latin@ Reader still resonates and guides our approach to this Pasados special issue: “Broadly speaking, the word ‘Afro-Latin@’ can be viewed as an expression of long-term transnational relations and of the world events that generated and were in turn affected by particular global social movements” (2010, 1). Jiménez Román and Flores recognized AfroLatinidad as transnationally inflected and also intimately tied to socio-historical and political moments and movements. Both identified the importance of African descent, but also were aware of the material reality of AfroLatinidad, so we also seek work grounded in the Blackness of AfroLatinidad. That is, our use of “AfroLatina/o/x” and “Black Latinidad” in this call for papers is grounded in “AfroLatinidades as social, cultural, and political constructions based in the embodied experiences of Black Latinxs” (Mills, Invisibility and Influence, 2024, 4).

Omaris Z. Zamora warns, “AfroLatinidad is often translated into consumable and appropriative norms in favor of mainstream Latinidad and Pan–Latin American identity by depoliticizing it from its Blackness” (“Transnational Renderings,” 2022, 94). We actively encourage submissions that forward the Blackness of AfroLatinidad. While we expect to receive submissions with different terminology, such as AfroLatine, Black Indigenous, or nation-based Black identities (e.g. Afro-Colombian, Afro-Nicaraguan), we encourage authors to be clear on the definitions they are using to explore AfroLatinidad. This issue looks to the histories of Afro-Latinas/os/xs who have been here and have recorded, written, or preserved their past.

We seek traditional scholarly articles ranging from 5000-8000 words. We also seek book reviews of 1,500 words or fewer that examine AfroLatinidades pre-1980. As noted below, we are open to other formats, such as a book roundtable, where a few scholars discuss a key text (book, film, study, etc.) published pre-1980 and its legacy/impact on AfroLatinx studies (e.g. Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets, Jesús Colón’s A Puerto Rican in New York, and Other Sketches). Relevant pedagogical reflections or archive corners will also be considered. For any questions, please reach out to the special issue editors: Regina Marie Mills  (miregina@umich.edu ),   Keishla Rivera-López  (kriveralop@haverford.edu ),  Omaris Z. Zamora  (omaris.zamora@rutgers.edu)

Authors must submit materials via Scholastica by January 5, 2027, and follow the journal’s guidelines for manuscript preparation. All citations should be in MLA format (most recent edition). Visit the journal’s homepage for more about Pasados and its submission guidelines. The AI Policy is available under “For Authors” on the journal’s homepage.

Topics/Approaches for the special issue include but in are no way limited to:

• Examination of pre-1980 texts (broadly understood), including work published pre-1980s, historical fiction set before the 1980s, and newer works that include constructions of the past
• AfroLatina/o/x literature, memoir, nonfiction, short stories, and other written narratives (and related theoretical approaches)
• AfroLatinx visual culture, like comics, video games and digital media, art, performance art, fashion, and other visual modes (and related theoretical approaches)
• AfroLatinx play practices and analog games
• AfroLatinx music, musicians, opera, musicals, etc.
• AfroLatinidad and childhood/youth, such as Young Adult (YA) and children’s literature, folktales, etc.
• Examining important pre-1980s AfroLatina/o/x/e celebrities, writers, actors, artists, and other cultural workers (historical analysis, analysis as cultural figure, celebrity studies, etc.)
• Book roundtable, where a few scholars discuss a key book of the time and its legacy/impact on AfroLatinx studies
• Book reviews of scholarship that examines AfroLAtindiades pre-1980 (new or forthcoming work, but also important scholarship that perhaps did not get reviewed in the past)
• Political, historical, social, or publishing context for important AfroLatinx work of the past
• The formation and institutionalization of AfroLatinx studies as a field