Call for Papers: Africana Cultures and Policy Studies

Call for Contributors: Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: How African American History, Culture, and Studies Can Transform Africana Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan

We seek scholarly and engaging papers for an edited book titled, Africana Cultures and Policy Studies: How African American History, Culture, and Studies Can Transform Africana Public Policy. This collection of essays is a new edition to Palgrave Macmillan’s Contemporary Black History series, edited by Dr. Manning Marable and Dr. Peniel Joseph. This particular edited work is supported by The Africana Cultures and Policy Studies Institute, an innovative group of scholars who seek to develop the academic sub-field of Africana Cultures and Policy Studies.

This collection represents an interdisciplinary field of Africana studies centered around the critical examination of the broad spectrum of Africana cultures and policies globally. Contributors should be interested in connecting their research to the construction, implementation, and evaluation of policies on a local, national, and transnational/international level. Also welcome are submissions from scholars whose research concentrates on the relationships and intersections among African Diaspora cultures and public policy.

The book’s contribution to both the fields of Contemporary Black History and Africana Studies is found in its intentional goal of canonizing Africana historical studies for the purposes of policy development, analysis and application. Africana Cultures and Policy Studies calls for a relocation and synthesis of policy-derived research emanating from public and private culture spheres. In the process, our goal is to use history and culture to engage the policy process from a top-down and bottom-up approach, thereby dissolving the previously impenetrable divide existing among theory and practice, academics and policymakers, and community constituencies and related social/civic institutions.

We are especially interested in essays that examine the link among the study of Africana culture and public policy, both from bottom-up and top-down perspectives.

Submission Procedure
Authors are requested to submit an abstract of 250 words (in plain text or word format) by March 15, 2008 along with a CV and short bio. The abstract submission should contain the author’s contact information (name, email, postal address, phone and fax numbers), institutional affiliation, and working title of the proposed essay.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 15, 2008. The deadline for submission of accepted papers is June 1, 2008.

Submitted papers will undergo an extensive peer-review process. The length of a submitted paper should be approximately between 20-25 pages and formatted in The Chicago Manual of Style publication style format.

Important Dates

Abstract submission deadline: March 15, 2008
Author notification: April 15, 2008
Paper submission deadline: June 1, 2008

Please address queries, abstracts, and papers to:

Editor
Dr. Zachery R. Williams
Assistant Professor of African American History and Pan African Studies
Department of History
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325
Email: zrw@uakron.edu
Tel: 330-972-2402
Fax: 330-972-5840