Call for Contributions
Submissions from 500 to 9000 words will be considered for publication. In addition to original research essays, Public Culture welcomes submissions of photo-essays and other visual essays, with or without accompanying text; editorials; translations of previously published, groundbreaking essays; interviews with prominent artists and intellectuals; announcements of collective intellectual projects; and short review essays. Authors may also choose to shape their contributions according to the criteria for the following occasional sections:
Arts in Circulation: Reflections and reports on innovative critical cultural work and on the work of art in public. Includes pieces on new kinds of museums; alternative or oral history projects; the expansion of musical performance and recording into forgotten musical histories or the dissemination of a broader range of music; alternative publishing ventures or exhibition practices in film, theater, and dance; innovative cultural work with children; public art such as murals and graffiti; innovative uses of television, radio, or other mass media; and reports on past cultural work.
Sites of Knowledge: Reports and deliberation on institutions that have made a signal mark on a world region. Research centers, journals, publishing ventures, or any other institution of knowledge production and dissemination can be selected for close attention and engagement through interviews with key participants, direct documentation, and critique. How do institutional sites define and engage their publics? How do they position themselves in global networks of knowledge production? What notable qualities and innovations are worth sharing? The aim of this section is to generate an archive of sites of knowledge through a set of informative and critical reflections.
Etymologies: Investigates the contemporary uses and meanings of the terms public, publicity, and public opinion. Short essays (of approximately six to eight pages) that consider the semantics and pragmatics of one or more of these interrelated terms in the context of a particular language and a particular people are welcome. How do these terms compare across cultures and languages? Do their meanings "translate," and what do their "mistranslations" bode for comparative social theory grounded in what may be hidden ontological statements about civil society?
Miscellany: A collection of various artifacts, especially news clippings, literary extracts, postcards, and images. Includes media accounts of items relevant to public discourse and debate throughout the world. The section seeks to highlight not only the reported phenomena as such but also the nature of journalistic mediation. Submissions should include all relevant facts of publication and should be no longer than three pages.
From the Field: Briefly annotated single photographs for inclusion as a photo feature at the end of the issue. Submissions are not limited by style or content.