Call for Papers: Transnational Black Feminist Thought
Call for Papers:
Transnational Black Feminist Thought
Guest Editor: Rachel Afi Quinn, University of Houston
Deadline: January 1, 2027
Global Black Thought, the official journal of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), is now accepting submissions for a special issue on Transnational Black Feminist Thought. This special issue asks us to consider transnational black/Black feminist theory* as a way of knowing that draws on the embodied knowledge of Black people throughout the African diaspora. Black feminists have long been in conversation with scholars and activists across national borders and utilizing various languages. Transnational Black Feminist Thought is as evident in the social construction of blackness in the Caribbean as in Harlem, New York, or South Side Chicago, and this has been the case for centuries. Because of their transnational movements and networks, Transnational Black Feminists theorize their experiences across a range of mediums, giving us new ideas about the world. How do we apply transnational Black feminist theory in a globalized world? Moreover, when and how is Black Feminist Theory being produced beyond the borders of the United States? We are seeking to expand the circle of thinkers with whom we engage today, exploring the strengths and limitations of their transnational Black feminist thought. What of the surrealist ideas of Suzanne Cesaire, the theorizing of women’s desire by Gloria Wekker, the decolonial queer theory of Ochy Curiel, or the critical race theory of Lélia Gonzalez, for example, and their thinking beyond the US? Whose theorizing is currently being left out of the conversation?
This special issue asks us to consider the diverse ways that Black women’s creative work is shaped by their transnational worldviews and lives beyond the US. Moreover, understanding the nuances of Blackness (capitalized or otherwise) well-beyond the bounds of a US racial framework is essential for critical engagement with Black intellectualism and Black arts and culture worldwide. This special issue invites submissions that shed new light on the significance of Transnational Black Feminist Thought in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
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- Transnational Black feminist thought on the African Continent
- Transnational Black feminist thought in the Americas
- The application of Transnational Black Feminist Thought in unlikely places
- Transnational Black feminist thought as a tool for surviving authoritarianism
- Theorizing Blackness/blackness across borders
- Transnational Black feminist thought emergent in life narratives
- Black joy and travel as Transnational Black feminist theory
- Transnational social movements and the influence of Black Feminist Thought
- Radical movements and Transnational Black Feminist Thought
- Transnational Black Feminist Thought and its influence on pedagogy
- Social media and the circulation of Transnational Black Feminist Thought
- Building community with the tools of Transnational Black Feminist Theory
- Transnational Black Feminist Thought and systems of patriarchy
Guest Editor: Dr. Rachel Afi Quinn
Rachel Afi Quinn is an associate professor in Comparative Cultural Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Houston. She was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. As a Black woman with a white Jewish mother and a Ghanaian father, she has been thinking about mixed race identity as a social construction for most of her life. Before earning a Ph.D. in American studies, she worked for California Newsreel where she received training on documentary filmmaking and distribution. Her first book, Being La Dominicana: Race and Gender in the Visual Culture of Santo Domingo (University of Illinois Press, 2021), explores questions of mixed race identity transnationally; it is now available in Spanish translation. Quinn was also part of the team that produced the 2015 documentary film Cimarrón Spirit about contemporary Afro-Dominican identities. Her essay “Spinning the Zoetrope: Visualizing the Mixed-Race Body of Dominican Actress Zoe Saldaña” was published in Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture. She also recently published a review of the 2020 FotoFest exhibition “African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and the Other” in Burlington Contemporary online. Her writing can also be found in Small Axe, The Black Scholar, and Sinister Wisdom.
She was a 2022-2023 Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and received a 2023-2024 NEH Faculty Fellowship for her current book project, a Black feminist biography of mixed race journalist Philippa Duke Schuyler. Dr. Quinn enjoys Black art and culture and can be found exploring art museums and supporting the arts everywhere she lives or travels. She is forever thankful for the interdisciplinary transnational feminist scholars who have trained her to think critically about race, gender, visual culture and globalization in the world today and the creative communities she gets to be part of. Follow her work on Instagram at @beingladominicana.
About the Journal
Global Black Thought, which launched in Spring 2025, is the official journal of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). The journal is devoted to the study of the Black intellectual tradition. The journal, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press and edited by renowned Brown University historian Keisha N. Blain, features original, innovative, and thoroughly researched essays on Black ideas, theories, and intellectuals in the United States and throughout the African diaspora. Global Black Thought publishes historically based contributions by authors in diverse fields of study throughout the humanities and social sciences.
While steeped in historical methodologies, Global Black Thought is an interdisciplinary journal informed by scholarship in Africana studies, feminist theory, and critical race theory. The journal welcomes submissions that feature original research and innovative methods. We also extend an invitation to scholars working outside the United States. Global Black Thought opens new directions for writers interested in understanding the ideas, theories, and ideologies that undergird Black social and political life. The journal encapsulates the best of scholarly research and innovative methods. Essays highlight the wide range of methods and methodologies, including new approaches and diverse and underutilized primary sources–both traditional and unconventional ones. In addition to well-researched, cutting-edge, and deftly argued essays, each issue of the journal features book reviews as well as interviews with influential Black intellectuals whose research is shaping the field. Click here to read the latest issues of the journal.
*At Global Black Thought, we capitalize Black to describe people and cultures of African origin, both in the United States and elsewhere.
**For questions about this special issue, please contact Guest Editor, Dr. Rachel Afi Quinn (raquinn@uh.edu). For general inquiries about the journal, please contact the editing team (GBTJournal@aaihs.org). Follow the link below to submit articles to the journal. More details about the journal can be found here. You can also join the journal’s email list here.