Call for Articles – Blog: Cultures, Histories and Identities in Visual Studies Research Network

Journal of Avant-Garde Studies (JAGS), Open Issue

https://brill.com/view/journals/jags/jags-overview.xml?srsltid=AfmBOorsCt36LpeexfRNvZiWbbuYqsd9jKXyF-CvMe38Lngv91KkKWYR

Editors-in-Chief: Éva Forgács, Benedikt Hjartarson, Cecilia Novero, Sami Sjöberg

Published biannually by Brill

About the Journal

The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies (JAGS) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the critical exploration of the experimental, the provocative, and the unclassifiable in the arts and literature. With a global outlook and a wide range of theoretical approaches, The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies examines avant-garde practices from the historical avant-gardes through the neo-avant-gardes and into the present, engaging both canonical figures and those marginalized or overlooked by existing histories.

The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies seeks to broaden and enrich our understanding of the vanguard by fostering dialogue across disciplines, geographies, and methodologies.

Scope of the Issue

For this open issue, the editors invite finished, original research articles on any avant-garde artist, movement, theory or practice, from any geographical or cultural context. Contributions are not limited to Europe and are especially welcome if from underrepresented regions, traditions, and perspectives.

The journal approaches the avant-garde not as a loose label, but as a historically and conceptually defined field shaped by practices, discourses, and institutions committed to rupture, experimentation, antagonism, and the rethinking of art’s social, political, and epistemic roles. Within this framework, the scope of the issue includes:

Historical avant-garde movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Neo-avant-garde formations of the 1960s-1980s
Post-1970s and contemporary practices that explicitly engage with, reactivate, critique or transform avant-garde paradigms.

While The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies welcomes scholarship on later and contemporary work, submissions must explicitly engage with the concept, history or legacy of the avant-garde, rather than modernism in a general or purely stylistic sense.

Possible Topics (Indicative, not Exhaustive)

Reconsiderations of avant-garde movements, groups, manifestos, and networks
Global, transnational, and decolonial perspectives on the avant-garde
Avant-garde practices beyond the visual arts and literature (performance, sound, film, media, architecture, design, fashion, etc.)
Theories and philosophies of the avant-garde
Gender, sexuality, race, class, and the avant-garde
Political, social, institutional dimensions of avant-garde practices
Archival discoveries, neglected figures, and alternative genealogies
Neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde debates
Avant-garde strategies in contemporary art and culture
Intersections between avant-garde practices and activism, technology, or popular culture
Reception, criticism, and the afterlives of the avant-garde, including how audiences, markets, and cultural memory have interpreted and recontextualized avant-garde work over time.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere
Articles should be submitted as completed manuscripts by the deadline (August 31, 2026)
Manuscripts should generally fall within the journal’s standard length (approximately 6,000-10,000 words, including notes and references)
Please include an abstract (max. 100 words), up to six keywords, affiliation details, and an email address
All submissions must comply with the journal’s style guidelines and will undergo double-anonymous external peer review
Whenever possible articles should be submitted in English (the journal’s primary language of publication).

Detailed submission instructions and style guidelines are available on the journal’s page on Brill’s website.

Peer Review

All articles published in The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies, including those in open and special issues, undergo a double-anonymous external peer review process.

Important Dates

Submission deadline for completed manuscripts: August 31, 2026*
Anticipated publication: December 2026

*Please note: if you wish to submit an abstract first to check whether your article falls within the scope of the journal, please do so by mid-June, 2026.

How to Submit

Manuscripts should be submitted via Brill’s online submission system for The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies. Please select “Open Issue” when prompted during submission. For any questions about your manuscript, please contact Editor-in-Chief, Benedikt Hjartarson, University of Iceland. For any questions about submission via Editorial Manager, please contact Brill’s EM support. All other matters can be directed to the publisher at BRILL, Masja Horn.