Participate
emisférica welcomes submissions of scholarly essays, activist reflections and interventions, interviews, and reviews of academic books, performances, and and/or other materials in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Each issue focuses on a specific theme —Expulsion, States of Devotion, Caribbean Rasamblaj, Decolonial Gesture— and explores broad intersections between performance and politics in the Americas. Submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. To receive Hemispheric Institute's announcements and calls, subscribe to the mailing list. All submissions and questions should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Review Guidelines
Scholarly Essays
Scholarly essays should focus on the main theme of the issue’s call. We welcome work that engages disciplines such as performance studies, literary criticism, film, media and visual studies, anthropology, sociology, race, gender and queer studies, communication, history and memory studies, and other areas of inquiry. The essays should be approximately 3,000 to 6,000 words, including endnotes. Check the right column of this page for our style and formatting guidelines for text and images. Please include a 150-word abstract of your article for publication. Abstracts should summarize the key points of the article, placing it in a broader context for an international readership. Please also include a 100-word bio with your submission.
Activist Interventions
Activists interventions could be literary or photo essays, chronicles, interviews, manifestos, scholarly presentations, and other contributions that address the main theme of the issue in ways that clearly call for social or political change. Contributions should have no more than 5,000 words including notes. Check the right column of this page for our style and formatting guidelines for text and images.
For contributions of more than 3,000 words, please include a 150-word abstract. Abstracts should summarize the key points of your contributions, placing it in a broader context for an international readership. Please, avoid the use of phrases such as “In this article...”; “The author...”; “The article is about....”. If you are able, please include a translated version of the bio to Spanish and Portuguese. Also include in your submission a 100-word bio on your academic career.
Reviews
If you are interested in contributing to emisférica's Reviews section, which publishes reviews of academic books, performances, films, videos, and/or other materials related to performance and politics, please send your proposal to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Proposals should include a brief description of the work and the author's approach to it (150 words); a short author bio (100 words); and a link to a previously published writing sample, or an unpublished writing sample as an attachment.
Reviews should be 800 words (up to 1500 for pieces covering more than one book, performance, or film). Please note that the review section is scholarly in nature and does not accept proposals from artists to write about their own work. Contributions that do not follow the editorial guidelines of the journal will not be considered for publication. Check the right column of this page for our style and formatting guidelines for text and images. For additional information on book reviews and performance, film, and video reviews, please continue reading.
Book Reviews
Reviews should place the book in the context of existing scholarship, analyzing its theoretical and/or historical implications. How does the book advance our knowledge of the subject? How does it alter or extend ongoing lines of critical inquiry? Do address the scope, structure, and methodology of the work. If you find any of these limited, note those limitations while also noting where the book is valuable. Where relevant, note the use and quality of images, charts, or other illustrative material. Comment on the quality of the index and bibliography. Refer to yourself in the first person, not as “the reviewer” or “this writer.” Keep quotations of the reviewed book brief; list the page number in parentheses following the quotation.
- Include book information at the top of the review in this format: Author/Editor. Title. City: Publisher, year. pages; illustrations [if applicable]. $xx.xx cloth, $xx.xx paper.
- Example: Emberley, Julia. Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal: Cultural Practices and Decolonization in Canada Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2007. 319 pages; $32.95 paper.
Performance, Film, and Video Reviews
Keeping a broad international audience in mind, reviews should introduce the artists, venues, genre/style of the performance, and place these in a relevant aesthetic and/or social context. Address the significance of the performance, in relation to political issues, social or cultural setting, artistic trends, the artistic development of the artists involved, and/or its audience, as appropriate. Do respect the specificity of the work, noting the details in production, delivery, or realization that characterize the work. Refer to yourself in the first person, not as “the reviewer” or “this writer.”
- Include performance information at the top of the review in this general format: Title of Performance. Written by Author. Directed by Director. Company Name. [For solo works: performed by artist.] Name of Performance Venue (theatre, gallery, location). City, State or country. Date the performance was seen (day/month/year).
- The Smell of Popcorn. Written by José Luis Ramos Escobar. Directed by Jorge B. Merced. Teatro IATI and World Players, Inc. Paradise Factory Theatre. New York, NY. 10 September 2010.
- For film/video: Title of film / video. Directed by Director. Language and available subtitles. Length. Place and year of production.
- Vidas paralelas. Directed by Rocío Lladó. Spanish with English subtitles. 100 minutes. Peru, 2008.
Contact
To receive Hemispheric Institute's announcements and calls, subscribe to the mailing list. If you have questions for the editors, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Permissions
You must receive written permission from the authors/creators of any supplemental materials (pictures, videos, etc.) before they can be published. Materials from websites require full citations, and may also require written permission. You will be asked to sign the Hemispheric Institute’s Contribution Agreement.