CFP: On_Culture Issue on “Present Futures”

The editors of On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture are calling for abstracts for Issue 15 (Autumn 2023) on “Present Futures” to engage with debates and interventions (both past and present) related to present futures across disciplines. How are futures and their a/effect on the present conceptualized in different disciplines and time periods? What role does the concept of future enact in different dispositifs? How do cultural artifacts (works of art, film, literature, popular culture) and social practices set to work particular understandings of the future? What cultural climates and historical circumstances have motivated, and currently motivate, specific understandings of the future and how these relate to the present? 

Contributions can address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Systematic approaches to future in the humanities and social sciences (e.g. art, visual culture, literature, history, philosophy, etc.)
• New critical methods and approaches for the study of the future
• Queer notions of future(s) and present(s)
• Decolonial future(s) 
• Black (feminist) futurity
• The relationship between future and affect theory
• Theoretical and historical critiques of concepts of the future (e.g. Marxist, poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, etc.)
• The performative dimension of particular understandings of the future
• Commodification of future projections
• Sustainable present(s) and future(s)
• Conceptual proximity to other concepts (such as projection, expectation, prefiguration, prevision, anticipation) and constraints/critiques of their mechanisms

If you are interested in having a peer reviewed academic article featured in this issue of On_Culture, please submit an abstract of 300 words with the article title, 5–6 keywords, a short biographical note, and your email address to [email protected](subject line “Abstract Submission”) no later than October 15, 2022. You will be notified by November 1, 2022 whether your paper proposal has been accepted. The final date for full paper submissions is February 15, 2023 and the issue will be published in Autumn 2023.

Please note: On_Culture also features _Perspectives, a section devoted to shorter, creative pieces pertaining to each issue topic. These can be interviews, essays, opinion pieces, reviews of exhibitions, analyses of cultural artifacts and events, photo galleries, videos, works of art… and more! These contributions are uploaded on a rolling basis and can be connected to every one of On_Culture’s issues. We are especially inviting _Perspectives for Issue 14 on “CODES: Power and Subversion.” You will find the CfA here. Interested in contributing? Send your ideas to the Editorial Team at any time: [email protected]

About On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 

On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture (ISSN: 2366-4142) is a biannual, peer-reviewed academic e-journal edited by doctoral researchers, postdocs, and professors working at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at Justus Liebig University Giessen. It provides a forum for reflecting on the study of culture. It investigates, problematizes, and develops key concepts and methods in the field by means of a collaborative and collective process. On_Culture is dedicated to fostering such engagements as well as the cultural dynamics at work in thinking about and reflecting on culture.

The journal consists of three sections: peer-reviewed academic _Articles, as well as _Essays, and the aforementioned _Perspectives. On_Culture brings new approaches and emerging topics in the (trans)national study of culture “on the line” and, in so doing, fills the gap__ between “on” and “culture.” There are numerous ways of filling the gap, and a plurality of approaches is something for which the journal strives with each new issue.

Please note: As a commitment to the open access to scholarship, On_Culture does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs) for the publication of your contribution.

Read the full call for abstracts