Call for Papers:
Special issue of Archives of American Art Journal on feminism and archives

The Smithsonian Institution’s American Women’s History Initiative celebrates the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States through the development of new exhibitions, collections, programs, and publications honoring women’s contributions to society. Throughout its history, the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has documented the role of women in the art world by collecting the papers and oral histories of prominent women artists, critics, and art historians along with the records of institutions that supported or disseminated their work. Highlights include the papers of Lucy Lippard and Linda Nochlin, the Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project, oral history interviews with the Guerrilla Girls, the Woman’s Building Records, and much more. This document summarizes the Archives’ documentation of women in the art world: https://www.aaa.si.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/2018-publications-journal-call-for-proposals-women.pdf. You can explore all of the Archives’ research collections online at https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections.

In support of the American Women’s History Initiative, the Archives of American Art Journal is planning a special issue showcasing new approaches to feminism, American art, and its archives. We invite proposals for manuscripts that ask: What constitutes a feminist reading of an archive? In what ways do archives serve or challenge feminist art histories? How can or should we define a feminist archival practice today? Essays selected for publication in the journal will explicitly link one or more of these questions to primary sources in the Archives of American Art. Authors must identify the specific collections that will inform their research. Please include the following in a single MS Word document and email it to Tanya Sheehan, editor of the Archives of American Art Journal, SheehanTsi.edu, by December 1, 2018:

- Author name and contact information

- Proposed manuscript title and abstract of no more than 250 words

The journal’s editorial team will review the proposals and then invite select authors to prepare a manuscript of 5,000-7,000 words (including endnotes) for double-blind peer review. Complete manuscripts for review will be due by July 1, 2019. Essays must be previously unpublished and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The Archives of American Art Journal is the longest-running scholarly journal devoted to the history of American art. It aims to showcase new approaches to and out-of-the-box thinking about primary sources. Distributed by the University of Chicago Press, the journal contains both peer-reviewed research and commissioned articles based in part on the vast holdings of the Archives. Information on manuscript submissions and review criteria is available on the journal’s webpage, http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/aaa.

Tanya Sheehan
Editor, Archives of American Art Journal
SheehanTsi.edu
http://www.aaa.si.edu
https://www.facebook.com/archivesofamericanart