Exploring Race and Memory: Perspectives from the U.S. and South Africa

Dear Colleagues,

Genealogy is now accepting submissions for a Special Issue on the theme “Exploring Race and Memory: Perspectives from the U.S. and South Africa.”

From the removal of Cecil Rhodes from the University of Cape Town to the toppling of Confederate monuments across the American South, both South Africa and the United States have witnessed new struggles over historical memory and memorialization. In both contexts, tearing down old markers of white supremacy has been accompanied by “memory activism” designed to tell a different story about the racial history of these societies. Scarred by racism, both South Africa and the U.S. have seen popular and grassroots initiatives rethinking statuary, memorials, museum exhibits, school curricula, historical sites, commemorative practices, and other expressions of collective memory.

This Special Issue of Genealogy invites submissions that explore the nature of these contests over memory in South Africa and the United States, with a focus on struggles over the legacy of white supremacy. Although all submissions are welcome, potential contributions might consider some of the following:

• Local and popular struggles over the place of race, racism, and honest accounts of white supremacy in school and college curricula;
• The suppression and/or censorship of such accounts;
• The removal of statues, symbols, place names, memorials, museum displays, and other markers conveying a history of racial domination;
• The commissioning and erection of new markers that either provide a more critical account of the history of white supremacy and/or celebrate those who have fought against it;
• Popular artistic, architectural, and/or other community-based projects designed to reveal a hidden or suppressed past;
• Studies of efforts to “decolonize” or transform existing museums and other memory spaces.

Contributions can focus on South Africa, the United States, or be comparative in nature.

Prof. Dr. Alex Lichtenstein
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• South Africa
• the United States
• memory
• memorials
• museums
• racism