Guidelines

Feminist Studies is committed to publishing an interdisciplinary body of feminist knowledge that sees intersections of gender with racial identity, sexual orientation, economic means, geographical location, and physical ability as the touchstone for our politics and our intellectual analysis. Whether work is drawn from the complex past or the shifting present, the articles and essays that appear in Feminist Studies address social and political issues that intimately and significantly affect women and men in the United States and around the world.

Feminist Studies welcomes submissions across multiple genres and topics. Although we have some specific calls for manuscripts, we still welcome articles on other topics. Most of the articles we publish are on a variety of topics and are not part of special issues or clusters.

We accept submssions in the following categories:

Research & Criticism
Creative Writing
Art & Visual Culture Features
Review Essays
Other Forms of Writing and Visual Expression

General Guidelines and Style Requirements

  • Articles should be no longer than 10,500 words, including footnotes.
  • We use the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style for manuscript and citation style.
  • Send your manuscript as a Word document. Do not send your submission as a PDF file.
  • Send two electronic copies of your manuscript: 1) an anonymized version without your name or other identifying information anywhere in it, including in the title of the file and footnotes; and 2) a second copy with your full name and other contact information on the cover page, and in the title. This version can include the acknowledgments, if any.
  • Include the full title of your manuscript and the names(s) of the author(s) in the text of the email in which you send your submission.
  • Make sure the version you submit to us is the final version; do not send another version later to correct mistakes, etc.
  • We will only review work that is not under consideration elsewhere, including in electronic format or on any kind of Web page or elsewhere on the internet.

 

 

Call for Papers

Feminist Studies welcomes submissions on all topics. From time to time, we also welcome contributions on the specific topics that we expect to produce special issues on, which will we announce on this site.


Call for News and Views

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization: One Year Later


On the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Feminist Studies invites News & Views reports on how activists, state legislatures, organizations, and corporations are responding to it. Our goal is to share resources and information about the new and shifting landscape with our readers. Typical length: 1500 words.

Due Date: September 30, 2023
Please send submissions to submit@feministstudies.org

 

 

Research and Criticism

Feminist Studies publishes research and criticism that address theoretical issues and offer analyses of interest to feminist scholars across disciplines. Although many, if not most, of the articles we publish draw on the methodology of a single discipline, we especially encourage scholars to pursue truly interdisciplinary research and research methodologies that not only showcase but integrate contributions from multiple disciplines.

Submissions should not exceed 10,500 words, approximately 35 pages, including footnotes. Please consult the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style for proper manuscript form and footnote citation style.

How to Submit:

For your submission to be complete, please send the following:

  • An electronic copy to submit@feministstudies.org. Please send the electronic file as a Word document, not as a PDF.
  • A 200-word (or fewer) abstract
  • A cover note with mailing and email addresses.
 

Creative Writing

Feminist Studies is deeply committed to publishing creative work. Beginning with our very first issue published in 1972, we have included creative work in every issue. We have published such distinguished authors as Meena Alexander, Nicole Brossard, Jayne Cortez, Toi Derricotte, Diane Glancy, Marilyn Hacker, Lyn Hejinian, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Sharon Olds, Grace Paley, Ruth Stone, and Mitsuye Yamada.

We continue to welcome all forms of written creative expression, including but not limited to poetry and short fiction in all forms. We are interested in work that addresses questions of interest to the Feminist Studies audience, particularly work that pushes past the boundaries of what has been done before. We look for creative work that is intellectually challenging and aesthetically adventurous, that is in complicated dialogue with feminist ideas and concepts, and that shifts our readers into new perspectives on women/gender.

We only consider original work that is not under review elsewhere. Since creative work will not be returned, authors should retain a copy of their work. If other work is cited in the piece, please use our citation style.

Because of space constraints we are unable to publish individual pieces that run longer than 15 pages, or about 5,500 words.

We have rolling deadlines for submissions of creative work. All creative work is reviewed by our creative writing editor who makes recommendations, which are read anonymously by our editorial collective.

How to Submit:

 

Art & Visual Culture Features

Each issue of Feminist Studies features an essay focused on visual art and/or culture that is accompanied by a multi-page, full-color, glossy spread of images. These essays take the form either of a short essay or artist’s statement (approximately 1,500 to 4,000 words) that focuses on a contemporary artist or artists, or a full-length, scholarly, peer-reviewed article (up to 10,500 words), following the same guidelines as those essays submitted under the rubric of “Research and Criticism.” Essays may also be illustrated with black and white images, when appropriate.

The art feature testifies to the journal’s longstanding commitment to feminist art from around the world. Although we often publish work by established artists (e.g., Betye Saar, vol. 30, no. 1; Wangechi Mutu, vol. 42, no, 2) or those no longer living (e.g., Alice Neel, vol. 28, no. 2), we especially wish to introduce emerging artists to our readers—or artists who have not yet received widespread attention in an interdisciplinary scholarly context. 

We are interested in various types of art and visual culture, including but not limited to painting, sculpture, craft, installation, and photography. We encourage artists to submit essays featuring their own work and/or to collaborate with others to submit a sequence of images accompanied by an introductory, critical essay.

 

Guidelines to submit a short essay or statement on art and/or visual culture:

  • The essay/statement may be written by the artist or by a scholar, critic, or other writer of some kind. Often artists work with critics to submit a set of images of their work. The primary readership will be academic, so the goal should be to situate the work alongside others in its genre and to explain its contributions.
  • Send the essay as a Word file (not a PDF) in an email attachment to art@feministstudies.org.
  • Include a Word document or PDF with the images you intend to feature, clearly labeled. (These can be low-resolution images at this point; in the event your submission is accepted, we will need to obtain high-resolution files of the images.)
  • Include a 50-word biographical note (each) for the artist and the author.

 

Guidelines to submit a scholarly, peer-reviewed article on art and/or visual culture:

  • Follow the guidelines for scholarly articles but address your submission to art@feministstudies.org.
  • Include a Word document or PDF with the images you intend to feature, clearly labeled. (These can be low-resolution images at this point; in the event your submission is accepted, we will need to obtain high-resolution files of the images.)
 

Review Essays

The Feminist Studies collective publishes one or more review essays in each issue. Review essays examine a cluster of important books or films on a general theme with the aim of providing our interdisciplinary audience an engaged overview of developments in feminist scholarship. Our review essays are original pieces in their own right that not only review important works but offer a sustained argument about theoretical trends and new research developments that would be of interest to our diverse readership.

Although we often commission review essays, we also welcome unsolicited proposals. Such proposals should identify the books or films to be reviewed, state why these books are important and deserve consideration as a cluster, and briefly present the concepts or questions that will be developed in the essay. (If a book has only minor merits, it should not be included in the review at all.) Along with the proposal, please submit a writing sample and a CV/resume.

Proposals will be discussed by the editorial collective at one of its regular meetings (held three times a year). On the basis of this discussion at the board meeting, the editors will either commission the review essay, in which case you will be assigned an editor with whom you will work directly, or the proposal will be rejected. Click here for our set of guidelines for writing the review essay; they should be considered when preparing a proposal.

How to Submit:

 

Other Forms of Writing and Visual Expression

We are actively seeking political and social commentaries, activist reports from the field, political manifestos, interviews, and other forms of writing that are not easily categorized. To this end, we encourage authors and artists to submit individual or collaborative projects that cross established boundaries of scholarship, activism, visual culture, memoirs, et cetera. Through such work we hope to ensure that Feminist Studies continues to engage, challenge, and reevaluate standard domains of inquiry to create new forms and objects of knowledge.

Please send work to our editorial and business office, along with a cover letter explaining your project. Depending on the nature of the work, we will either send it out for anonymous review or will review it at one of our tri-annual editorial collective meetings.

How to Submit:

  • Email an electronic copy (not a PDF) to submit@feministstudies.org.
  • Include contact information, including mailing and e-mail addresses.
 

Citation and References Guide

Feminist Studies articles follow the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Basic Format documentation style, for footnotes only, without a bibliography. See the CMS general guidelines 14.19–14.36 and the detailed citation information from 14.72 on.

We do not publish discursive footnotes, unless such notes include essential information. Whenever possible, please combine footnotes and eliminate long footnotes that are not essential to the argument at hand. Please be careful to supply all required information, including full name for authors, numbers of volumes of a multi-volume work, name of publisher, issue number or month/season for periodicals, and the page(s) upon which specific information, whether a direct quote or not, is based.

Below are some examples of common footnote types.

Book

1. Sarah Franklin and Helena Ragone, Reproducing Reproduction: Kinship, Power, and Technological Innovation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 9.

Book with full citation immediately preceding

2. Ibid., 13.

Book cited previously, but not immediately preceding

3. Franklin and Rogone, Reproducing Reproduction, 16.

For references already cited, a short title of 4 words or fewer is preferred.

Journal article

4. Sheryl Pimlott Kubiak and Lilia M. Cortina, “Gender, Victimization, and Outcomes: Re-Conceptualizing Risk,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 71 (June 2003): 39.

Issue number may be provided instead of month or season. Page number rather than inclusive pages is required when referencing a specific statement or idea.

Already cited journal article

5. Diane Elam, “Taking Account of Women’s Studies,” in Women’s Studies on Its Own, 220.

Subsequent reference to an anthology should repeat title, not editor.

Chapter in edited volume

6. Rosalind Petchesky, “The Body as Property: A Feminist Re-vision,” in Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction, ed. Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 394.

Two chapters in same edited volume

7. Judith Kegan Gardiner, “Rethinking Collectivity: Chicago Feminism, Athenian Democracy, and the Consumer University,” 191-201; and Minoo Moallem, “Women of Color in the U.S.: Pedagogical Reflections on the Politics of ‘the Name,’” 368-82; both in Women Studies on Its Own, ed. Robyn Wiegman (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002).

Give inclusive pages only when citing the complete chapter rather than a particular statement.

Author’s own chapter in edited volume

8. Natalie Zemon Davis, “Women on Top,” in her Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 124.

Translated work

9. Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 209.

Multiple volume book

10. William Farmwinkile, Humor of the American Midwest, vol. 2 of Survey of American Humor (Boston: Plenum Press, 1983), 132.

PhD dissertation

11. Phyllis Turnball, “The Politics of Toys: Politicization of Child Development” (PhD diss., University of Hawaii, 1978), 134.

Memo

12. Memorandum to Bill, June 6, 1942, Lilian Wald Papers, reel 94, Columbia University.

Newspaper

13. Pepe Karmel, ”Behind Folk Forms, Classical Modes,” sec. C, New York Times, October 27, 1995.

Introduction to book

14. Antoinette Burton, introduction to Transforming the Public Sphere: The Dutch National Exhibition of Women’s Labor in 1898, by Maria Grever and Berteke Waaldijk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).

Website

15. Carla Williams, “Naked, Neutered, or Noble: Extremes of the Black Female Body and the Problem of Photographic History,” http://www.carlagirl.net.