The How-To Issue
Organization: Public Humanities
Public Humanities is a new international open access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. The journal invites proposals for themed issues that pose urgent questions on contemporary public issues that require rigorous and relevant humanities knowledge.
The journal invites submissions to its upcoming Themed Issue ‘The How-To Issue’, which will be edited by Jeffrey R. Wilson.
Deadline for submissions 1 January 2027.
Description
Public humanities often require an expert in one area to learn another field or skill on-the-fly or to collaborate effectively across boundaries of specialization. Especially for younger thinkers and doers, fear of the unknown combines with taken-for-granted assumptions about standard forms of humanities work to prevent our pursuit of promising public humanities projects and careers. Even veteran humanities scholars who have extensive expertise in areas vitally important to public life can crumble when confronted with the prospect of moving outside their comfort zone of academic protocols to engage with audiences via new formats or professional pathways.
This issue invites practical guidance on doing public humanities. That work often involves meeting audiences where they are via media, formats, and professions that require (1) conceptual understanding of what these venues offer and (2) technical training in the nuts-and-bolts of best practices. The How-To Issue will feature a series of case studies, reflections and essays by people who have had success in a variety of formats related to public humanities (e.g., museums, activism, podcasts, policy work, etc.) offering critical reflection and guidance to people in the next generation who might be interested in those pathways but aren’t really sure where to start or how to do it. From public writing to social media, from graduate program administration to empirical research, from fundraising to publishing, the issue will provide concrete case studies of successes, failures, lessons learned the hard way, and time-tested strategies for turning ideas into realities.
The editor invites papers covering any form of public humanities, including but not limited to:
Activism
Blogs
Book Clubs
Community Conversations
Cultural Organizations
Educational Departments
Empirical Studies
Evaluation
Funding and fundraising
Grants
Libraries
Mass Media
Multimedia Formats
Museums
Podcasts
Policy
Practice-Based Research
Program Administration
Public Programs and Events
Public Schools (Pre-College)
Public Writing
Researching the Public Humanities
Social Media
Websites
Submissions can include any or all of the follow article types:
Article type?
Length?
Abstract required?
Description?
Reflection
1,500-4,000 words
No
Theorizing the affordances and impact of a format or profession.
Case Study
2,000-4,000 words
Yes
An article that provides an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case and narrates challenges, successes, failures, and lessons learned.
Essay
1,500-4,000
No
A discussion paper that reflects critically on a particular form of public humanities.
Submission guidelines
Submissions should be written in accessible language for a wide readership across and beyond the humanities.
Articles will be peer reviewed for both content and style. Articles will appear digitally and open access in the journal.?
All submissions should be made through the Public Humanities online peer review system. Author should consult the journal’s Author Instructions prior to submission.?
All authors will be required to declare any funding and/or competing interests upon submission. See the journal’s Publishing Ethics guidelines for more information.??
Contacts
Guest Editor name: Jeffrey R. Wilson
Email: publichumanities@cambridge.org
Questions regarding peer review can also be sent to the Public Humanities inbox at publichumanities@cambridge.org
Learn more at cambridge.org/pub
Jeffrey Wilson