CfP

Synthesis (18.2025)

In the Shadow of Empire: Situating Black British Writing

Special Issue Editor:

Prof. Emer. Joan Anim-Addo

Centre for Caribbean & Diaspora Studies (CCDS)

Goldsmiths, University of London

 

Granting Black British writing – as a body of texts – the place it deserves in the British university system is the central concern that this Issue explores. Acknowledging the historical perspective of 400 years of contested writing, and drawing on the conference, ‘Situating Black British Writing’ (London, 2023), the Synthesis special  issue focuses on situating the field in relation to the Humanities, critical thought, a changing understanding of the signifier ‘Black’, and the impact of UK publishing politics on the corpus.

The special issue builds on pioneering research and teaching interests established on differing sides of the Atlantic. This includes the co-founding, teaching, and inaugurating of the UK’s/world’s first Black British Writing postgraduate programme, following on and interlinking with the teaching and researching of Caribbean and diaspora literatures. Similarly, dialogue with the writing produced in Africa centrally informs the corpus. That such intersections visible within Black British writing speak to both transglobal connections and complexities, helping to re-world and define the body of work and its wide-ranging transcultural influences, is also central to this issue. We showcase, especially, Black voices that still too often remain largely missing from the UK’s scholarly debate. We bring to the Issue researchers and Black British writers alike presenting varied approaches to a range of Black British writing genres.

Scope

Remaining true to the rationale of the conference, the Issue aims to promote dialogue between specialists that include Black British writers and scholars and reflect critically the many intersections and meanings of diaspora and diasporic frames of analysis
in Black British literary and cultural criticism. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The legacies of Empire on Black British Writing
  • The nature of Black Britishness and its negotiating between the different locations to which Black British writers are attached and (re)present
  • Considerations of ventriloquism and/or allyship: their impact on Black British Writing
  • Black British Writing in relation to generation, gender, religious affiliation, sexuality, and political ideology
  • Black British Writing, its entanglements, and their meanings
  • Black British Writing constructing/ reproducing/ conceiving utopian or dystopian futures
  • Blackness, mythology, and its impact on literary production
  • The UK and the politics of Black publishing
  • The UK academy and Black British Writing

All proposals should be emailed to ccds@gold.ac.uk & synthesisjournal2008@gmail.com

Proposals can include:

Individual articles: Please send a 300-word abstract and a short author bio (200 words).

Panel Discussions/Roundtables: Please send a 500-word abstract (including rationale) and a short bio (200 words) for each confirmed panelist.

Creative Presentations: Please send a synopsis, short bio (200 words) and a link to examples of your work.

Important Dates

Submission deadline (Abstracts): March 15, 2024

Acceptance/ invitation to submit notification: April 3, 2024

Camera ready submission due: September 30, 2024

Review Process: October – November 2024

Revisions: November – December 2024

Final drafts to be submitted January 30, 2025

Publication date: March 2025

Publication

All accepted papers will appear in the special issue and published in open access by Synthesis.

Submission guidelines

Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished papers that are not under review in any other journal. All papers will be peer reviewed [on the basis of originality, significance, soundness (theoretical/methodological) and clarity].

For detailed submission guidelines, please see here.