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 Submissions should be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.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
Style Guidelines

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.

Style Guidelines

Quotations

Use double quotation marks for quoted material within the text; single quotation marks should only be used for quotes within quotes.
For ellipsis within a quotation use three leader dots for a mid-sentence break, four if the break is followed by a new sentence.
Quotations of over 40 words should be extracted and indented without quotation marks, single-spaced, and not italicized.
Periods and commas go inside quotation marks in English, and outside in Spanish and Portuguese.

Spacing

Double-space all text, including endnotes, extracts, and reference lists.
Type only one letter space after periods and colons

Titles

Italicize books, performances, operas, movies, TV and radio programs, paintings, sculptures, dances, and epic poems.
Use quotation marks for articles, unpublished works, TV and radio episodes, poems, and songs.
Follow first mention of any performance or artwork with a date.

Commas, capitalization, dates and style

Use serial commas before "and" (i.e. artists, scholars, and activists).
Section headings should be in bold, not italicized or underlined.
Please keep capitalization to a minimum. When possible, use lower case for government, church, state, party, volume etc.; north, south, etc. are only capitalized if used as part of a recognized place name e.g. Western Hemisphere, South America; use lower case for general terms e.g. eastern France, south-west of Mexico. Dance and theatre companies should be upper case, e.g. Elevator Repair Service.
For dates list as day month year, without commas (21 September 1968)
Spell out months: September 1965.
Use the following format for decades: in the 1950s; the '60s; 21st century.
Spell out numbers from one to ten. Use numerals for numbers 11 and higher.
Bracket ellipses that indicate author's or editor's deletion: [...]
Use m-dashes (—) [shift + option + dash] for parenthetical thoughts, n-dashes (–) [option + dash] for ranges (e.g. working 9–5, from 1968–1972), and hyphens for prefixes (ex-president, anti-Darwinian, etc.) or clarifying compound expressions (punch-drunk, weight-carrying, etc.). All hyphens and dashes should be without spaces (between the hyphen and the word).
Interviews: Use the last name of the speaker in all caps followed by a colon: MORAGA, I said.

Gender Avoid the generic use of male nouns and pronouns when referring to both sexes; also avoid use of the feminine article in reference to ships, countries, etc.: France, its people.

Images

We welcome up to three images to accompany any one review. Photos should have a minimum of 300 dpi and should be formatted as jpg or tiff.
Fully caption and credit all images in a separate page (in word format) including the name of the files with the corresponding information. Captions should include title, date, and venue name; names of performers, directors, authors; and photographer or photo credit. They may also include a brief description or comment. Example: Left to right: Débora Correa and Ana Correa in Kay Punku, by Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. Teatro Empire, Buenos Aires, Argentina. September 20 2010. Photo: Marlène Ramírez Cancio
In-text references to images should be specific (fig. 1, fig. 2, etc.)
Please save the images with logical names, i.e. your last name and a number (gonzalez1.jpg, gonzalez2.jpg, etc.). Do not use capitals, spaces, or accents in the image title.
Send images in an email; do not embed them in the document. Include the corresponding caption and credit information for the attached images in the body of each email.
You must receive written permission from the rights-holders of the images before they can be published.
You will be asked to sign the Hemispheric Institute’s Contribution Agreement.

Non-English Words and Proper Names

Italicize non-English words on first use only.
For non-English language productions, give the title of the production first, then parenthetically in English: Calendario de Piedra (Calendar of Stone, 2001).

References and citations

Works cited should conform to Chicago Manual of Style, 17 ^th edition, and be consistent in every possible way.
Citations : For citations within the text, use the parenthetical author-date system: (Godoy 2006, 143-45) or (Godoy 2006).
Endnotes : Please use computer-generated endnotes only (no footnotes!). Use endnotes for additional author’s notes; for simple citations, use in-text parenthetical citation.
If note numbers fall at the end of a sentence, please place them outside quotation marks after the period. If they fall after a clause marked by a comma, place them after the comma.
If applicable, include references for cited works only after endnotes at the end of document. List multiple sources by one author chronologically. For online sources cite URL and date accessed (For example: Accessed 10 April 2008).
Sounds are best mentioned in running text and grouped under a subhead in the reference list.
See below for examples. Please see the following page for more examples of proper citation: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.htm
Book
McKenzie, Jon. 2001. Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance. London: Routledge.
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches . Reprinted in Three Negro Classics with an introduction by John Hope Franklin. New York: Avon Books, 1965. Page references are to the 1965 edition.
Journal article
Prieto-Stambaugh, Antonio. 1996. “La actuación de la identidad a través del performance chicano gay.” Debate Feminista 7, no. 13: 285–315.
--------. 1998. “Performance art transfronterizo: hacia la desconstrucción de las identidades.” Gestos 13, no. 25:143–62.
Newspaper (Include newspaper references in text if possible)
Gómez, Raul. 1997. “Violento inicio del semestre.” El Nacional, October 1: A1.
Online sources
Critical Art Ensemble. 1994. Autonomedia/semiotext(e). The Electronic Disturbance. Accessed 22 November 2012. http://www.critical-art.net.
Stelarc. 2002. Hexapod. Stelarc. Accessed 12 February 2018. http://www.stelarc.va.com.au
Interview or Personal correspondence
Stoklos, Denise. 2001a. Interview by author. Paris, 21 May.
--------. 2001b. Personal correspondence. 2 October.
Sound
Public Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam

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.