In November 2022, the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies held a two-day international symposium on “The Global / Oceanic / Nineteenth Century.” Intentionally broad in scope, the symposium sought to cross-map nineteenth-century studies with key currents of the blue humanities, the Black and circum-Atlantic, Indian Ocean studies, oceanic ecologies, post- and decolonialism, maritime globalization, and beyond.

Building on and expanding out from this event, Global Nineteenth-Century Studies is pleased to invite submissions for a special issue on “The Global / Oceanic / Nineteenth Century.” We welcome essays that employ oceanic approaches to nineteenth-century culture, ecology, economics, history, and politics in a range of global contexts. Utilizing the rubrics of the symposium, possible topics might include (but are in no way limited to):

1. “Hydrographies: (Re)writing Oceanic Spaces”
— the blue humanities
— Indian Ocean studies
— the global / oceanic South
— navigation, exploration, and “discovery”
— naval geopolitics and hydrocolonialism
— living “in the wake” of empire
— oceanic ecologies and the nonhuman sea
— oceanic zones; the littoral and the submarine; surface and depth
— shorelines and seascapes

2. “Maritime Mercantilism: Oceanic Exchanges and Microhistories”
— globalization and maritime circulations and exchanges
— shipping, infrastructure, and logistics
— maps, charts, and logbooks
— Digital humanities approaches to global / oceanic / nineteenth-century history
— maritime materialisms and object histories
— micro / macro scales of oceanic history
— labor and leisure at sea
— maritime economies (including piracy)

3. “Home and Away: Oceanic Circulations and Travellers”
— maritime mobility and immobility
— lascars on land and at sea
— the Black and circum-Atlantics
— enslavement and diaspora
— immigration and emigration
— Indigenous / subaltern knowledge of the ocean
— dockside geopolitics
— oceanic imperialism, patriotism, and xenophobia

4. “Cross-Currents: The Global / Oceanic / Nineteenth Century”
— feminist oceanic studies
— women sailors and sailors’ women
— queering maritime history
— philosophy / theology and the sea
— oceanic forms
— shipwreck and salvage
— pollution and waste
— floods and tides
— pedagogy and teaching oceanic texts

Submissions should be typed and double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins on all sides. Supporting files, including illustrations, figures, and tables, must be submitted with the written text. Essays should generally be in the range of 9,000 words (including notes and bibliography).

Because the journal uses double-anonymous review, no identifying information should appear in the manuscript. Your submission should be compiled in the following order: title; abstract (100–150 words); keywords (5–7); main text; acknowledgements (if any); references; end notes. For initial submission, illustrations/figures/tables should be inserted either directly in the text or appear as appendices in the same file. Although initial submissions may be in any format, essays must, as a condition of acceptance, conform to the journal’s style guide.

An email cover letter should provide the author’s or corresponding author’s contact information. The submission should be saved as <surname given name> with no commas between the two names. For example: Doe Jane.

Manuscript submissions may be sent to global19cnus.edu.sg by 15 September 2024. The expected date of publication is fall/winter 2025.

To learn more about Global Nineteenth-Century Studies, please visit Liverpool University Press’s website at https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/gncs. GNCS is a publication of the Society for Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. To learn more about this geographically and disciplinarily diverse network of scholars who share an interest in the world’s connectedness between 1750 and 1914, visit https://www.global19c.com/