Call for Book Reviews Editor
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal indexed in Scopus and the Web of Science. The journal engages analytically, critically and creatively with fashion and/or beauty.
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty is looking for a scholar who knows the field of fashion studies and can serve as a Book Reviews Editor to coordinate regular book reviews, working with publishers, authors, and prospective reviewers.
If you are interested in this position or have any queries, please contact the editors:
Susan B. Kaiser, University of California, Davis: sbkaiser@ucdavis.edu Anneke Smelik, Radboud University, the Netherlands: a.smelik@let.ru.nl
General Call for Papers
The Field
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty employs a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary theories and methods to understand: (a) how and why people appear as they do in everyday life and communicate with others in the process of doing so, (b) the materials and products they use to fashion their appearances and (c) the labour and conditions associated with the creation and distribution of the materials and products used to style, dress and fashion diverse bodies in everyday life. The journal invites critical and creative, disciplinary and interdisciplinary and international perspectives on studies of fashion and/or beauty – locating these within their larger cultural and theoretical contexts, and interrogating their ideological underpinnings. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty favours contributions that combine theoretical and methodological rigour.
The Journal
The journal invites critical and creative, disciplinary and interdisciplinary, and international perspectives on studies of fashion and/or beauty. Authors are invited to locate these within their larger cultural and theoretical contexts, and interrogate their ideological underpinnings: for example, deconstructing limiting (e.g., binary-gendered, oppositional, racialized assumptive, aged-associative) ways of knowing.
We are especially interested in papers that offer fresh perspectives on age-old questions regarding structure and agency, for example:
- how the body interfaces with aesthetic, cultural, economic, and social politics that become inextricably intertwined with issues of appearance, class, dis/ability, ethnicity, gender, generation/age, race, religion, sexuality, and other subject positions;
- how individuals resist structurally institutionalized constraints and express their own subjectivities despite such constraints;
- how individuals articulate agency through expressions of appearance style, using the materials (e.g., textiles, clothes, accessories, beauty products) at hand;
- how local communities negotiate identities through style in the global economy.
We are open to all innovative research in this field, and are especially interested in papers that offer fresh perspectives that challenge hegemonic and colonial discourses and structures that have historically limited understandings of fashion and beauty. We encourage submissions that foster representation from diverse age, class, cultural, ethnic, gender, geographic and sexual perspectives
Papers should be submitted online at https://www.intellectbooks.com/critical-studies-in-fashion-beauty. Prospective authors are welcome to contact the Editors in advance of submission (sbkaiser@ucdavis.edu and a.smelik@let.ru.nl).
CSFB welcomes book reviews of between 1000–1200 words. Enquiries regarding Book Reviews should be sent to the Book Reviews Editor, Chamutal Leket, at leketc@gmail.com.
Journal contributors will receive a free PDF copy of their final work upon publication. Print copies of the journal may also be purchased by contributors at half price.
Special Issue Call for Papers
'Black Beauty: Perspectives, Views and Representations'
Guest Editors: Sharon N Hughes and Tania Phipps-Rufus, University of East London
This Special Issue focuses on ‘Black Beauty’, offering those who engage in pan-African, women and gender, critical race theory, fashion and beauty studies an opportunity to showcase scholarly work that will unpack, evaluate and critique the views, perceptions, history, myths and realism of Black women and beauty. We encourage submissions that critically use such lenses as Black feminist thought, feminist theory, critical race theory, postcolonial and decolonial theory, and that consider the numerous intersections of power and oppression at work in race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and nationality, as well as constructions of identity through the gaze of imperialistic cultures.
Author bell hooks contends that Black female representation in the media determines how Blackness and people are seen and how other groups respond based on their relation to these constructed images. An insular definition of beauty is deeply ingrained in all cultures, each unique in its own right. It is rationalized that race, a social construct, determines our beauty standards, fashion choices and lifestyles. However, the more marginalized one is, the more challenging it is to be seen as relevant, alluring or part of western society. It can be argued that no one has felt this more than Black women.
Women, in general, are challenged by societal ideas of beauty developed by culture creators. Can it be said that Black women, even more so, encounter a range of characterized ideologies filled with stereotypes and expectations of colonized perceptions of beauty? Today, images of twenty-first-century beauty are depicted with diversified faces through social media, pop culture, celebrity ambassadors and campaigns, vastly increasing the market share of beauty brands within the Black community. As researchers examine how culture affects self-concept and cultural identity, how have the challenges of Black beauty affected Black women psychologically, socially and emotionally?
This Special Issue seeks to critically reflect upon and interpret how beauty among Black women within the pan-African diaspora is defined, expressed, created, criticized, politicized, appropriated and appreciated.
Submissions are encouraged to explore Black beauty, including, but not limited to, the following kinds of questions or issues:
- How is Black beauty seen and interpreted through varying eyes and views?
- What is the influence behind the production of beauty within the pan-African community?
- How has beauty been defined within the Black community?
- How has the colonization of African Americans affected perceptions of Black beauty?
- The influence of Black culture on the beauty industry.
- To what extent did COVID and the Black Lives Matter movement compel changes in the representation of Black women in beauty and fashion media?
- What are the effects of the perception of Black hair styles on the social mobility of Black women in the workplace?
We welcome contributions from any discipline that incorporate academic articles and more experimental and artistic forms of writing. Please submit abstracts of 300–500 words and a brief bio (150 words) to Sharon N. Hughes, s.n.hughes@uel.ac.uk by 31 May 2023. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or ideas you want to share in advance.
Articles submitted to ‘Black Beauty’ can range from 4000–8000 words in length (including references); images, tables and diagrams are welcome. All submissions will be double-blind peer-reviewed. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, with reviews commencing immediately. All submissions must follow Intellect’s house style: https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/1748/house-style-guide-6th-ed..pdf
Important dates
Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2023
Notification of abstracts: 30 June 2023
Deadline for full articles: 1 December 2023
