Journal of Medieval Worlds Call for Submissions
The Journal of Medieval Worlds relaunches in Spring 2027 with two special debut issues: “Fragments I: Putting the Worlds Back Together” and “Fragments II: Worlds Rebuilt.” These two double issues, appearing in Spring and Fall 2027, will entail a first issue of shorter contributions and a second issue of longer, full-length contributions, that showcase the important and necessary interventions occurring in Medieval Studies around issues of race, sexuality, gender identity, decolonization, and other emerging critical discourses. These issues will highlight what makes the Journal of Medieval Worlds distinctly unique. The theme itself will reflect not only on the journal’s relaunch, but also on the state of our discipline in the context of current socio-political upheaval around the globe.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL WORLDS, Spring 2027 (3.3-4)
Fragments II: Conversations about the Worlds Rebuilt
“The Coyolxauhqui imperative is to heal and achieve integration. When fragmentations occur you fall apart and feel as though you’ve been expelled from paradise. Coyolxauhqui is my symbol for the necessary process of dismemberment and fragmentation, of seeing that self or the situations you’re embroiled in differently. It is also my symbol for reconstruction and reframing, one that allows for putting the pieces together in a new way.”
(Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Duke University Press, 2015, p. 19-20)
Across world cultures, there is an art to putting things back together that means more than just repair. Instead, by making things more useful/beautiful, it becomes a cultural metaphor for resilience, identity, and healing.
Having discovered the power of the fragment, how do we reflect attempts to piece the world back together? Do the lines of fracture still show? Do we let them show or try to hide them? What does that say about the mending process? This applies to fragmented identities as well. Who has the power/right to fragment identity?
How do we reflect the fragmented and mended world in our work? If mending is a residue of the past, what does it say about the future?
Fragments II: We are seeking 2000-4000 word critically engaged responses to the state of medieval studies, with a particular emphasis on race, gender, sexuality, decolonization, and other emerging critical discourses. These pieces might include a look towards what the future of medieval studies might bring or contain a reflection on what medieval studies is rejecting or growing away from.
Some ideas for contributions:
How has intersectionality helped us make a disparate world more visible?
How has the reality of the Global Middle Ages changed our approaches to archives, non-canonical texts, and world literature as scholars and teachers?
How do we highlight the chains of contact made through trade, craft, economics, and the material culture it promotes?
How might a translation of a serendipitously found textual fragment, published here, close a gap in knowledge?
How does a mended world look different to different scholars?
How might collaboration with scholars on the margins of academia (Alt-AC, neglected nations, two-year institution faculty) foster the integration of once siloed knowledge?
Submit manuscript submissions by February 15, 2027 at: jmw.scholasticahq.com
Contact us: JMW_editorial@ucpress.edu
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About the Journal
The relaunched Journal of Medieval Worlds serves as a venue for intersectional scholarship on the global medieval world, encompassing any geographic region from the year zero to around 1500 CE. The journal’s purpose is to foster an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to the Middle Ages, which foregrounds issues of race, sexuality, gender identity, disability, socio-economic status, immigration, and decolonization in a global expanse to encourage meaningful comparisons across cultures and periods.
The journal also encompasses the study of the Middle Ages’ afterlives with a particular attention to the ways in which the medieval past has been deployed in the modern world around issues relevant to our global, intersectional concerns.
In addition to full-length academic articles, the JMW also publishes reviews of books, textbooks, and relevant exhibitions, as well as essays on pedagogy, state of the field bibliographies, translations of primary and secondary sources, and other shorter interventions.
Website: https://online.ucpress.edu/jmw