Call for Submissions

Submissions and guidelines

We publish scholarly articles, practice-based reflections, interviews, dialogues, reviews, and creative and hybrid forms. General submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and may also be considered for themed sections.

Submission guidelines: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ptoj/how_to_submit.html

Call for Submissions for the 2026 Edition:

Critical Pedagogy & Critical Theatre in a Time of Genocide

Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term genocide, defined it as “a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups.” Contemporary scholars have emphasised that genocide is a recurring feature of global modernity, entangled with empire, capitalism, and racialised domination. It must be understood not only as an event that erupts into visibility, but also as a process and structure that erodes lives, cultures, and worlds over time. It unfolds gradually through forced displacement, assimilationist education, sterilisation campaigns, ecological destruction, and the criminalisation of cultural practices.

In the face of genocidal processes, pedagogy becomes a crucial site of resistance. Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) remains one of the most powerful articulations of education as a practice of freedom. In contexts where genocide seeks to reduce people to objects of annihilation, the process of conscientização (to engage in dialogue, to name one’s reality, to imagine alternatives) becomes existential.

Like pedagogy, theatre is a space where the struggle over humanity and erasure is enacted. Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (1979) called forth the “spect-actor,” who intervenes, improvises, and reshapes oppressive situations. For Boal, theatre was not only a mirror of reality but a rehearsal for revolution.

Guiding question

What roles can pedagogy and theatre play in confronting genocide, mass violence, and systemic identity-based erasure and oppression?

If genocide involves not only the destruction of bodies but the annihilation of knowledges, then resisting it requires opening space for multiple forms of expression. For this reason, the special section invites not only scholarly articles but also creative work: poetry, theatre scripts, visual art, video, audio, and hybrid forms. These contributions are not supplementary. They are central to resisting erasure. They allow for the articulation of what cannot be said in conventional academic registers. They carry memory, bear witness, and sustain hope.

We welcome

  • Scholarly articles that critically examine pedagogy and theatre practices in contexts of genocide, mass violence, and systemic erasure.
  • Reports from the field documenting grassroots practices, community projects, and on-the-ground struggles for survival, resistance, and transformation. Writing support will be available for practitioners who may find academic writing unfamiliar.
  • Creative and hybrid contributions (poetry, visual art, performance, video, audio, theatre scripts, or other forms) that bear witness to and intervene in this time of crisis.

We are especially interested in work that

  • draws on critical pedagogy to analyze or intervene in contexts of erasure
  • engages critical theatre practices as modes of resistance, survival, or imagination
  • bridges theory and practice in ways that expand both
  • takes a decolonial stance, highlighting voices and perspectives that might otherwise be silenced or rendered unintelligible
  • explores the aesthetic, embodied, and affective dimensions of teaching and performing in times of atrocity

Timeline

  • Deadline for expressions of interest (max. 500 words): 15 May 2026
  • Workshops with prospective authors: Second and Third Quarters of 2026
  • Submission deadline for completed manuscripts:  14 September 2026
  • Publication of the 2026 edition: 14 December 2026 

Collective process

This special section is conceived as a process of collective inquiry as much as a publication. We will offer pre-publication workshops to support idea development, foster exchange, and nurture collaborative learning among contributors. Following publication, we will host public conversations and video dialogues to engage wider audiences in reflecting on the issues raised. These events will be co-produced by the Executive Editor together with a supportive working group.

Join us

This is a moment that calls for courage, creativity, and solidarity. We invite educators, artists, scholars, and activists to contribute to this special section and to the conversations it will spark.

For questions, proposals, or expressions of interest, contact:

Matthew Rich-Tolsma (Executive Editor) — m.rich-tolsma@artez.nl