“Histories of the Latino/a/x Midwest”

For issue 26.2 we invite authors to submit research articles that examine the complex history of the Latina/o/x Midwest.

For more than a century, Latinas/os/xs have transformed urban and rural spaces across the U.S. Midwest. Whether through creating vibrant communities in large or mid-sized cities, contesting state violence and U.S. colonialism, forging political coalitions, producing powerful artistic works, or sustaining various industries with their labor, the historical impact of Latinas/os/xs on the Midwest has been far-reaching. Despite this sustained presence and influence on the region, the Midwest continues to be understudied in relation to the persistent number of studies published on Latinas/os/xs in the Southwest, West Coast, and East Coast. Over the past fifteen years, scholars of the Latina/o/x Midwest have made tremendous progress in remedying the overlooking of the region within the larger field of Latina/o/x History. Yet, much remains to be done. In the vein of those past efforts and in an attempt to continue this momentum, Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal invites authors to submit research articles that examine the complex history of the Latina/o/x Midwest. With this in mind, contributors to this issue are encouraged (but not required) to consider the following topics:

• Multi-ethnic and Multi-racial Collaborations or Conflicts
• Indigenous and Afro-Latinx Midwest
• Midwest Latina/o/x Industrial or Agricultural labor
• Relationship Between Urban and Rural Spaces
• Community Studies
• Midwest Sanctuary Movement
• Immigration and Migration
• Electoral Politics
• Anti-imperial and Anti-capitalist Activism
• Cultural Productions (music, murals, photography, pageants, art, creative spaces, etc.)
• Gentrification and Political Economy
• Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Race
• Deindustrialization
• “Recent” Latina/o/x History
• Midwest Latina/o/x Archives

Submission guidelines can be found at go.depaul.edu/clr (then click on Dialogo tab at left). Please submit completed articles to dialogo@depaul.edu. Please write “Submission for Latinx History of the Midwest” in the title line of the email. For other inquiries about this issue, please contact Dr. Juan Mora-Torres at jmorator@depaul.edu. For inquiries related to Diálogo in general, please contact Dr. Bill Johnson González at bjohns58@depaul.edu.

We encourage submission of articles by April 1, 2024.

Special Theme: "Latinx Recreation"

For issue 26.1 we invite authors to submit research articles that examine the areas of Latinx Environmentalisms and Latinx Leisure and Outdoor Recreation.

This work brings together two overlapping areas of interest: Latinx environmentalisms and Latinx leisure and outdoor recreation. Latinx communities’ and cultures’ relationships to natural history and outdoor recreation is a growing area of interest in Latinx studies and in the environmental humanities. We aim to provide cultural and historic context to contemporary efforts to diversify conservation and outdoor recreation in the twenty-first century, paying particular attention to questions of questions of environmental justice, labor, racial capitalism, colonialism, and migration. Latinxs are underrepresented as outdoor recreators and as visitors to public lands and as employees of land management agencies and conservation organizations. Industry surveys and trade presses often focus on understanding Latinxs as lacking something that limits outdoor participation. Our work seeks to collectively denaturalize this discourse by demonstrating how white supremacy, ongoing forms of colonialism, and colorblind racism interfere with Latinx participation in outdoor recreation and in the professional class of outdoor labor. Moreover, we’re interested in the ways that Latinx communities use recreation as sites of resistance, pleasure, community-building, and social activism.

We are excited about papers that think creatively and expansively about what Latinx recreation is or push the boundaries about outdoor recreation and leisure. We particularly invite papers that address Afro-Latinx and Indigenous Latinx experiences. Papers that critique or complicate the term or identity Latinx are welcome. We encourage contributions from the humanities and the humanistic social sciences, including auto-ethnographic approaches.

Proposals may include scholarly articles (8,000 words or less), interviews with or personal essays by Latinx recreation practitioners, artists, and activists (6,000 words or less), and proposed reviews (1,300 words or less) of books, art exhibits, digital projects, etc.

To be considered, please submit an abstract (300-500 words) and a biography (up to 250 words) to recreation-special-theme@googlegroups.com by January 15, 2023. Contributors will be invited to discuss works-in-progress at an optional workshop at the Association for Literature and Environment Conference July 9th-12, 2023 in Portland Oregon. Initial drafts will be due in Fall 2024 with final drafts due in February 2024. Publication is anticipated in October 2024.

 

Special Theme: "Queer Latinx"

For issue 25.2, we are seeking research articles (8000 words or less) that explore the complexities and varieties of Latinx (broadly defined) and queer lives.

We welcome articles about U.S. Latinx communities, as well as those which explore diverse Latin American realities. We will consider articles from a variety of disciplines, including literature, film and media studies, performance studies, art history, sociology, anthropology, history, and cultural studies.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• What’s in a name?: Terminology issues – LGBT? Queer? Cuir? Joto/a/e/x?, etc.
• Queer? Where?: Transamerican/transnational queer circuits and migration
• Queer Spaces
• Queer Latine/x young adult fiction
• Queering the canon
• Queer life writing
• Transgender matters
• Queer Latinx performance
• Visibility: New representations in film and television
• Queer Activism
• Queer intimacies and socialities (or asociality)
• Cruising, Social Media
• Queer archives
• Queer affects
• Latinx Studies and queer of color critique

Submission guidelines can be found at go.depaul.edu/clr (then click on Diálogo tab at left). Please send inquiries to editor Bill Johnson González (bjohns58@depaul.edu) or dialogo@depaul.edu. We encourage submission of articles by February 19, 2024.