African American Review is a scholarly aggregation of insightful essays on African American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews. Published quarterly, AAR has featured renowned writers and cultural critics including Trudier Harris, Arnold Rampersad, Hortense Spillers, Amiri Baraka, Cyrus Cassells, Rita Dove, Charles Johnson, Cheryl Wall, and Toni Morrison. The official publication of LLC African American of the Modern Language Association, AAR fosters a vigorous conversation among writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
African American Review has deleted its account on Twitter. We reach this decision having no doubt that Twitter's new chief of executive operations cherishes free speech. We do regret keenly, however, the wanton disregard he demonstrates for that which is also responsible speech. We also regret his decision to fire cavalierly many thousands of workers in what is, and will likely be for the foreseeable future, a critically unstable economy.
The site's now more bald contempt not only for workers, but also for the kind of thoughtful and generative discourse suitable for a broader marketplace of ideas, only fuels an already noxious political and social climate. We will not consent to be a party to such naked irresponsibility, either now or at any time to come.
Please check out our new page on Mastodon, a decentralized, nonprofit social network, at https://masto.ai/@afamreview. And continue to visit this page for further updates.
--The Editors
Winner: Marina Magloire (University of Miami), "'Some Damn Body': Black Feminist Embodiment in the Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton" (Vol 55.4)
Mention of Honor: Ben Fried (Cornell University), "James Baldwin's Readers: White Innocence and the Reception of 'Letter from a Region in My Mind'" (Vol 55.1)
Winner: Kimberly Mack (University of Toledo), "Love Story Black and the Third Plane Novel" (Vol 55.2-3)
Mention of Honor: Emily Ruth Rutter (Ball State University), "Baseball and Beloved Community in the Memoirs and Poetry of E. Ethelbert Miller" (Vol 55.4)
Post-Soul Afro-Latinidades, a special issue of The Black Scholar 52.1 (2022), and the Post-Soul Afro-Latinidad panel at the 2023 CHI Fellows Symposium at Amherst College brought together scholars who sought to bridge the gap between Latino, African American, and Africana studies. Inspired by the rich print and in-person dialogues between these scholars, we propose developing an edited collection titled Post-Soul Afro-Latinidad: A Critical Reader. This proposed edited collection seeks to assemble an array of critical articles and personal essays that focus on Afro-Latino and Black/African American interculturalism in the post-segregation era. Including expanded versions of the original articles in Post-Soul Afro-Latinidades, we seek chapters for a book manuscript that will put contemporary theories of Afro-Latinidad in conversation with the work of post-soul (and post-Black) theorists and cultural critics. Are the post-soul and Afro-Latinidad conceptually linked or conceptually discrete? Can the lens of the post-soul reveal insights about both Afro-Latinidad and Latinidad that could not be revealed otherwise, and vice versa? In terms of scholarship, teaching, activism, and social cohesion, what do we stand to gain or lose by putting these concepts in conversation with each other? These are the questions that inspired the need for Post-Soul Afro-Latinidad: A Critical Reader. The coeditors of this proposed edited collection invite scholars from a wide range of fields in the humanities and social sciences to contribute chapters that critically explore the relationship between the post-soul and Afro-Latinidad in a wide range of subject areas, including, but not limited to:
Chapter Proposal: Submission Deadline 1 May 2024: The chapter proposal/abstract should be 250-300 words and include a title and 5-6 keywords. It should also include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, institutional email address, and a 75- to 100-word bio. The proposal should explicitly indicate how the author uses the post-soul and Afro-Latinidad as conceptual tools to answer their research questions and examine their topics of analysis. Please submit manuscripts to the coeditors by or before the 1 May 2024 deadline. The coeditors will announce accepted proposals on 1 June 2024.
Chapter Manuscript: Submission Deadline 1 September 2024: The word limit for submissions is 6000-8000 words, inclusive of endnotes and the bibliography. Submit article and essay manuscripts as Microsoft Word files only. Please use the most recent version of the Chicago Manual of Style (endnotes-only format), Times New Roman 12pt font, 1" page margins, and double-spacing for the entire document. Please submit initial manuscripts to the coeditors by or before the 1 September 2024 deadline.
Coeditors Trent Masiki (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) and José I. González (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Although they are the most abundant life form on earth, plants have received scant attention from ecocritics until recently. As allies in the rethinking of human exceptionalism and the limits of human conceptions of nation, race, sexuality, disability, and invasion, plants challenge us to reimagine our philosophical and material relationship to the beings which enable each breath we take.
For this edited collection (working title: Plants Beyond Borders) we invite 4,000- to 6,000-word contributions that take an interdisciplinary approach to reimagining and rethinking plants and/or human relationships with plants throughout the Americas. Genres might include but are not limited to literature, performance studies, film studies, and art. This collection comes out of our Critical Plant Studies Modern Language Association panels in 2021 and 2024. It has attracted interest from a university press, and we anticipate publishing through a university press.
Proposals might consider:
Please send proposals (300-500 words) and brief biographies (100 words) to Alicia Carroll (Auburn University) and Courtney Ryan (Lafayette College) by 1 May 2024. Collaborative proposals are welcome, and proposals from BIPOC scholars are encouraged. If accepted, completed chapters of 4,000-6,000 words will be due 2 September 2024.
The Department of English at the University of Memphis invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in contemporary African American literature with a subspecialty in one or more of the following categories: children’s literature, Afrofuturism, digital humanities, music and literature, queer theory and literature. The position is at the Assistant Professor level beginning August 2024.
This position teaches courses on both the graduate and undergraduate level. The standard teaching load is 3/2 with one course release in the first year, a second pretenure course release, and the possibility of a pretenure professional development release. Other job duties include advising graduate students, keeping an active research agenda, and contributing to departmental and university service. Salary is competitive and based on experience.
The Department of English consists of six undergraduate concentrations (African American literature, applied linguistics, creative writing, literature, professional writing, and TESOL), a variety of MA and PhD programs, and several certificate programs. The department maintains close ties with a wide range of cultural organizations and nonprofits in the region. For this reason, the position is uniquely suited for a candidate interested in community engagement or public-facing scholarship.
Qualifications: Requirements include a PhD in English, Black studies, Africana studies, race and ethnic studies, or related discipline are encouraged to apply. PhD must be in hand or secured before August 2024.
To apply, candidates should visit https://workforum.memphis.edu/postings/37947 to submit the following:
Review of applications will begin 15 November 2023.
Rafia Zafar, professor of English, African and African American studies and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis, has coedited a special issue of African American Review dedicated to pioneering writer, historian and activist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938). Read more here.
A former pupil of Howard alumna Toni Morrison, Scott's gift marks the largest gift from a single donor in school history. Read more here.