Call for abstracts from special editors Ben Chappell (University of Kansas) and Jennifer Nájera (University of California, Riverside). Review of abstracts will begin April 15, 2025, for a preliminary editorial decision in May. Complete manuscripts will be due in September, 2025 for publication in 2026. This is a peer-reviewed collection.

This special issue of American Studies will explore the intersections between Chicanx/Latinx Studies and Critical University Studies. Our goal is to publish a rich and varied collection of work that demonstrates how Chicanx/Latinx studies scholarship offers  a critique of academic institutions and practices. We are particularly interested in critical perspectives on topics such as neoliberalism, historical erasure, access and distribution of academic resources, among other topics, that are centered on the material needs of students and faculty whose presence within academia is contingent and contested. We are also interested in providing an opportunity for scholars who work in various roles related to institutional formations such as the “Hispanic-Serving Institution” to frame their reflections and interventions more critically than they may be able to within the pragmatic or immediate needs of their positions. Seeking a range of perspectives– student, faculty, teacher, researcher, staff, administrator, etc.-- we want to contribute to a more complex understanding of “the university” or academia more generally, especially thinking about how Chicanx/Latinx students, faculty, and staff experience it. The resulting collection will not only document contemporary realities of Chicanx/Latinx Studies, but also illuminate more generally the implications of doing academic work under social conditions that are increasingly fraught and contested.

See the full Call for Papers. Submit abstracts of 250-400 words to bchappell@amsjeditors.org.