Call For Papers | Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas | University of New Mexico
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Call For Papers

“Tu vas y yo ya vengo ": Hemispheric Art and Visual Culture of Central America and its Diaspora

Call for Papers: Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, Volume XVII. Send completed materials to hmsphr@unm.edu. Deadline: Monday, June 30, 2025

Expect issue XVI (2024) soon! We Apologize for the delay.

Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas is an annual publication produced by graduate students affiliated with the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico.

From the establishment of banana plantations by the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica in 1899 to the recent actions by the Trump administration to reclaim authority over the Panama Canal to control global trade, Central America has been in the center of complex international histories of capital gain, extraction, and consumption. The timeline above exemplifies how Central America has been crucial to global imperial histories. Yet, while the Central American landscape has constantly been at the center, Central America's art and visual culture exist at the margins. As rendered evident in recent texts such as Visual Disobedience: Central American Art and Decoloniality (2024) by Kency Cornejo, Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad (2025) by Marianna Ortega, and Central American Counterpoetics: Diaspora and Rememory (2024) by Karina Alma, art plays a critical role in conceptualizing the complex Central American histories that Central American communities navigate. For volume XVII of Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, we seek scholarly essays that ask us to imagine and explore the critical role of art and visual/material culture of Central America, isthmian and diasporic alike, from any time period. With an intentionally broad historical timeline and geographical scope, we encourage hemispheric perspectives and non-linear histories to be in closer dialogue. We invite graduate students (see guidelines) to contribute to the exploration of this subject and continue expanding perspectives on art and visual/material culture of Central America and the diaspora.

We invite advanced graduate students (See Guidelines) to contribute to this exploration by submitting papers.

TOPICS OF INTEREST MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

Agency and political interventions, geopolitical landscapes, cartographies and borders; migration and transnationalism; memory-making and alternative archival practices; belonging and identity; food relations and visual culture; gender and sexuality; indigeneity; and methodologies (decolonial, feminist, anti-imperial, critical race theory, etc.). For further questions please send an email to hmsphr@unm.edu.

Guidelines for Submission:

  • Submissions and accompanied materials (see below) must be emailed to Hemisphere by Monday, June 30, 2025 at: hmsphr@unm.edu.
  • Only completed works by advanced graduate students (MA and Ph.D.) currently enrolled in academic programs in and outside of the U.S. will be considered. (See Guidelines)
  • Submission formats include essays (15–30 pages in length), book, exhibition, or performance reviews (5–10 pages in length), or interviews (5–10 pages in length)
  • Submissions in English, Spanish or Portuguese are acceptable. (Any other language please send an email)
  • Type of Submissions
    1. Research-based Articles (20-30 pages)
    2. Exhibition and/or Performance Reviews (5-10 pages) .
    3. Interview (5-10 pages)
  • We welcome submissions for book reviews (5-10 pages) on recent publications that center and/or incorporate Central American art and visual culture, such as:
    1. Carnalities: The Art of Living in Latinidad by Marianna Ortega (2025)
    2. Visual Disobedience: Art and Decoloniality in Central America by Kency Cornejo (2024)
    3. Central American Counterpoetics: Diaspora and Rememory by Karina Alma (2024))
    4. The Rise of Central American Film in the Twenty-First Century by Mauricio Espinoza and Jared List (2024).
    5. Black in Print: Plotting the Coordinates of Blackness in Central America by Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar (2023)
    6. Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica by Claudia Brittenham (2023)
    7. From Threatening Guerrilla to Forever Illegals: US Central Americans and The Cultural Politics on Non-Belonging by Yajaira M. Padilla (2022)
  • Each submission must be accompanied by:
    1. A cover letter that prominently notes the title of the essay, the field of study to which it pertains.
    2. An updated complete CV that includes the author’s status (e.g. M.A., Ph.D. Student, or Ph.D. Candidate), department, and institution name and location. Authors will be notified in Late May / Early June of the status of their submission.
  • For formatting guidelines, and other policies see: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hemisphere/
  • Authors of essays published in Hemisphere will be invited to present their work at a symposium to be scheduled in 2025 at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, if conditions allow. If not, we may hold the symposium virtually through Zoom.
  • To view past volumes of Hemisphere, please visit UNM Digital Repository https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hemisphere/
  • Be sure to follow us on Instagram for future news and updates: https://tinyurl.com/4d4nhdfh

Images Used:

Flyer: Victoria Cabezas, En el bosque (In the Forest), 1973, 19x24 cm, Chromogenic printing on paper