Siyabonana: The Journal of Africana Studies
Call for Papers for the Inaugural Edition

Mission

Siyabonana: The Journal of Africana Studies is an open access online peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes original research and creative intellectual work on key issues within the discipline of Africana Studies and across the global African world. Pan-African in scope, the journal publishes research articles, essays, commentaries, book reviews, interviews, and other creative work that utilizes African-centered theories, methodologies, and approaches to not only examine critical issues, but to present solutions within all areas of Africana Studies, including the humanities, arts, and sciences. It simultaneously provides intellectual space for discourse about community social justice activist work and liberation struggles on the continent and within African world communities. Accepting intellectual and creative work from diverse scholars, activists, writers, and artists who resemble the Editorial Board’s diverse training and scholarship, The Journal of Africana Studies intentionally positions itself as an inclusive and affirming discipline-based African-centered entity. Timely and radical intellectual research and creative pieces on the prison industrial complex; Africana/Black digital humanities; Africana genders and sexualities and Africana queer theory; the Black radical tradition; political prisoners; Africana/Black Psychology; mental health, nutrition, and holistic health; the African/Black Aesthetic; Africana spiritual philosophy; Black liberation theology; and Afrofuturism are, therefore, also welcome.

The Special Issue

From Armstead L. Robinson’s Black Studies in the University (1969) to Abdul Alkalimat’s The History of Black Studies (2021), scholars have undoubtedly documented the histories of Africana Studies (Black Studies/African American Studies/ African Diaspora Studies) units, curricula, student activism, and public discourse. These academic conversations about the discipline have helped define disciplinary boundaries, methods, methodologies, and approaches. However, much of this work has centered on historically white colleges and universities (HWCUs), with significantly less research on the discipline of Africana Studies at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic serving institutions (HSIs). Africana Studies at Howard University, Tennessee State University, Claflin University, Morehouse College, Baruch College, and California State University, Northridge, for example, also have radical institutional histories, transformative curricula, and dynamic students and faculty that remain understudied.

The purpose of this inaugural issue is to document the complex origins, histories, developments, transformations, faculty, curricula, funding, and futures of Africana Studies departments, programs, centers, and other units at HBCUs, HSIs, and other institutions serving marginalized communities within the American academy.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

- The origins and legacies of, and new developments in, Africana Studies at HBCUs and HSIs;
- The relationship between African Studies and Africana Studies at HBCUs and HSIs;
- The Black radical tradition, Pan Africanism, and student activism at HBCUs and HSIs in the origination and institutionalization phases of the discipline;
- Interviews/Oral histories of past and present Africana architects, students, and faculty;
- Africana Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (African/Africana feminist, African/Africana womanist, and African/Africana queer thought) and the challenges to Africana Studies at HBCUs and HSIs;
- Book reviews of recent (published within the last three years) texts that either document Africana Studies at HBCUs or HSIs, or books that include a chapter(s) on the discipline at HBCUs or HSIs;
- New directions in eBlack Studies and Africana Studies digital humanities at HBCUs and HSIs;
- The COVID-19 pandemic, HBCUs, HSIs, and pedagogies in Africana Studies;
- Graduate programs in Africana Studies at HBCUs and HSIs;
- The Black Campus Movement at HBCUs and HSIs

Submission Guidelines

The journal encourages longer essays and research articles, as well as shorter book reviews and commentaries. Essays, research articles, and oral histories/interviews, should not exceed 10,000 words, and book reviews, review essays, film reviews, and commentaries should not exceed 3,000 words.

Manuscripts should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document, double spaced, written in Times New Roman, size 12 font, and adhere to the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, APA Publication Manual, or MLA Handbook in terms of format and citation.

For this inaugural edition, the editors are asking for authors to submit a 300 to 400 word abstract for initial consideration before submitting a longer work. The abstract should include the tentative title, author(s), affiliation(s), type of submission, detailed summary of the proposed submission, and representative sources. Abstracts are due no later than January 1, 2022, and decisions on acceptance will occur no later than February 1, 2022.

Once abstracts are accepted by the editors, completed submissions are due no later than July 1, 2022, and should adhere to the guidelines stated above including a title page with title of submission and type of submission (research article, interview etc.), name of author(s), affiliation(s), and email(s).

Submission Timeline:

Abstracts Due: January 1, 2022
Notification of Acceptance: February 1, 2022
Completed Submission Due: July 1, 2022
Final Revised Submissions Due: September 1, 2022
Publication: Fall 2022

All abstracts and submissions should be uploaded to the submissions page on the journal website at https://www.journalofafricanastudies.com/submissions.