Pasados Special Issue: Against the Past/Contra Pasados
Co-edited by Jesse Alemán (University of New Mexico) and Evelyn Soto (Rutgers University—New Brunswick) Deadline: January 15, 2026
This special issue of Pasados invites critical interventions anchored in recovered, pre-1980s US Latinx literary and expressive forms of cultural production that confront the past; challenge the presentism of US Latinx Studies; and speculate on the future of the sustainability of recovery research in an era of digitized content, restrictive budgets, and disciplinary shifts that lean toward contemporary identity formations and their present-day politics. “Against the Past/Contra Pasados” invokes “against/contra” as prepositions that signal opposition to something but also in anticipation of something (as in to bet against the odds/contra las probabilidades); protection from something (as in to shelter against the wind/contra el viento); or contact with something (as in to butt up against the wall/contra la pared). “Against/contra” announces contrast from something but also relation to something; it is a form of resistance as well as a state of reference. As a state of reference, “against” enables ideas of counterbalance and possibilities of exchange (to set against the scale/contra peso); it also gives direction to movements, both critical and political (to be against the current/contra la corriente). To be “against the past” does not only mean to be opposed to it—it can also mean to be supported by it and to hedge in anticipation for what it might bring. “Contra Pasados” adds to the nuance by signaling Pasados itself as a journal that invites or warrants such resistance, opposition, or speculation. It’s in all these ways that this special issue invites scholarly articles (6,000-8,000 words, including reference matter), pedagogical pieces (2,000 words), or archival reflections (2,000 words) in English or Spanish that analyze how recovered materials invoke the past as a mode critique, reassert the history of coloniality, or imagine alternative futures of Latinidad. We also seek pieces that situate, theorize, or critique current trends in US Latinx Studies against the past. Here, we are interested in learning the limitations of recovered material for methodologies, interventions, or contemporary concerns in US Latinx Studies, and we are equally interested in essays that leverage recovered works to check the presentism of US Latinx Studies. Finally, we invite contributions rooted in archival studies, digital methodologies, or critical pedagogies that speculate on the future of our pasts in US Latinx Studies, American literary studies, and the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project in the context of digitized materials, institutional barriers, curricular demands, or disciplinary trends that tend to focus on relatively contemporary US Latinx literary and cultural forms of expression. Authors must submit materials via Scholastica by January 15, 2026, and follow the journal’s guidelines for manuscript preparation. Inquiries may be sent to the co-editors:
Dr. Jesse Alemán, Professor of English and Presidential Teaching Fellow Assistant University of New Mexico
jman@unm.edu
Dr. Evelyn Soto Professor Department of English Department of English Rutgers University—New Brunswick
jman@unm.edu x
Pasados is an open-access publication providing peer-reviewed content with a focus on Latinx cultural pasts. Appearing twice annually, the journal publishes methodological and theoretical studies of Latinx archives, textual artifacts, and histories. We make available to researchers, students, teachers, and community partners essays in the field of critical archive studies, history, and literary criticism, as well as translations of recovered materials and pedagogical models for classroom teaching. Visit the journal’s homepage for more about Pasados and its submission guidelines.
