Open Call for Proposals.

Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia – the only peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to Southeast Asia’s art – will celebrate 10 years of publishing in 2026. We are now accepting proposals for papers on any topic related to Southeast Asia’s contemporary and modern art, as well as the region’s visual and material cultures, broadly conceived. We invite contributions from scholars working in and between all disciplines and fields of inquiry – including but not limited to art history, moving image studies, architectural history, media studies, visual anthropology, and so on – as well as from artists, curators, and others.

Abstracts of 500 words, as well as biographical statements of 100 words, should be submitted to southeastofnow [at] gmail.com. We accept proposals at any time, but the deadline for proposals to publish in 2026 – the journal’s 10th anniversary – is 30 April 2025.

We accept proposals for contributions in the following formats:
ARTICLES (approx. 4,000 – 7,000 words inclusive of footnotes).
REVIEWS (approx. 1,000 – 3,000 words) of publications, exhibitions, conferences and other projects.
TRANSLATIONS of archival documents and other texts, from any relevant language.
SHORT RESPONSES (approx. 1,200 – 2,000 words) including artist’s pages.
OTHER FORMATS OR LENGTHS upon discussion with the editorial collective.
All our issues are open access.

All proposals will be assessed by the editorial collective, with guidance from the advisory board as necessary. Accepted proposals for articles will be sent for double blind peer review by two external experts appointed by the editorial collective. Other materials will be assessed by the editorial collective, but can also be sent for external peer review if requested by the author and agreed by the editorial collective.

ABOUT SOUTHEAST OF NOW

Southeast of Now is a scholarly journal on art and visual culture, published online and in print twice yearly by NUS Press, National University of Singapore. The journal aims to look and listen closely to the discursive spaces of art in, from, and around the region that is referred to as Southeast Asia, from a historical perspective. The journal presents a necessarily diverse range of perspectives not only on the contemporary and modern art of Southeast Asia, but indeed of the region itself: its borders, its identity, its efficacy, and its limitations as a geographical marker and a conceptual category. As such, the journal is defined by a commitment to the need for and importance of rigorous discussion, of the contemporary and modern art of the domain that lies south of China, east of India, and north of Australia.
The journal publishes a mix of peer-reviewed Articles and non-peer-reviewed material, including Roundtables, Responses, Translations, exhibition and book Reviews and archival documents worthy of circulation. Southeast of Now is indexed in Scopus and listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.

The journal is edited by a collective of scholars and practitioners (http://southeastofnow.com/editorial-collective/), supported by an eminent and active Advisory Board.

This journal is open access thanks to the support of the Chen Chong Swee Asian Arts Programme at Yale-NUS College and the Foundation for Arts Initiatives. Print subscriptions are available and individual numbers are available at selected bookshops in the region. We do not charge author processing fees of any kind.

Our latest issue, and all past issues are available online: https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/716

Scopus, the world's largest indexer of global research content, recently accredited Southeast of Now. The journal is also listed on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (https://doaj.org/toc/2425-0147).