About this journal

From its inception, Critical Arts examined the relationship between texts and contexts, cultural formations and popular forms of expression, mainly in the Third World, but after the 1994 transition in South Africa Critical Arts repositioned itself in the South-North and East-West nexus focusing on developing transdisciplinary epistemologies. Critical Arts ' authors are Africans debating Africa with the rest; and the rest debating Africa and the South and with each other.

The journal is rigorously peer reviewed, via ScholarONE Manuscripts, and aims to shape theory on the topics it covers. Cutting edge theorisation (supported by empirical evidence) rather than the reporting of formulaic case studies are preferred as submissions. Submissions are sought from both established and new researchers, and recent topics have included political economy of the media, political communication, intellectual property rights, visual anthropology and indigeneity, the ethnographic turn in art, and of course cultural studies. Submissions must, perhaps, aim to restore the vision of earlier theorists and historians, for whom ‘culture’ was a kind of synthesis arising from the contradictions between human society and the politics of nations. Under the pressures of globalization, this kind of understanding becomes more relevant at every turn. Critical Arts seeks to profile those approaches to issues that are amenable to a cultural studies-derived intervention, on the basis that ‘culture’ is a marker of deeper continuities than the immediate conflicts under the fire of which so many must somehow live their lives.

Early contributions of Critical Arts can be accessed via the Michigan State University eJournals project: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/

Co-Editors
Tomaselli, Keyan G. - University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Dyll, Lauren - University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Editorial Co-ordinator:
Grant, Julie - University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Associate Editors:
Dunn, Hopeton - University of Botswana, Botswana
Gumede, Mkhonzeni - University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
Rutten, Kris - Ghent University, Belgium
Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth - University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Wright, Handel K. - University of British Columbia, Canada
Xiao, Yao - University of British Columbia, Canada

Rapid Communication Editor:
Narunsky-Laden, Sonja - Independent Researcher, Israel

Book Reviews Editor:
Duan, Siying - Shanghai University, China

Editorial Consultants:
Abraham, Nevine - Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Bethlehem, Louise - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Causey, Andrew - Columbia College, USA
de Lange, Rudi - Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
de Reuck, Jenny - Murdoch University, Australia
Eke, Maureen - Central Michigan University, USA
Falkof, Nicky - University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Farber, Leora - University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Grossberg, Larry - University of North Carolina, USA
Heuva, William - North-West University, South Africa
Katiambo, David M. J. - The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Kenya
le Roux, Beth - University of Pretoria, South Africa
Louw, Eric - University of Queensland, Australia
Lowe, John - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Maractho, Emilly Comfort - Uganda Christian University, Uganda
Mhiripiri, Nhamo A. - Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Oloko, Patrick -  University of Lagos, Nigeria
Pollock, John C. -  The College of New Jersey, USA
Skare Orgeret, Kristin - Oslo & Akershus University College, Norway
Sousa, Helena - Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Stanley Niaah, Sonjah - The University of the West Indies, Jamaica
Steenveld, Lynette - Rhodes University, South Africa
Tembe, Paul - SELE Encounters, Cross-civilizational Communication Strategies and Analytics, South Africa
Thomas, Kylie - University College Cork, Ireland
Wu, You - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Zeng, Jun - Shanghai University, China

Editorial Intern:

Landers, Shannon - Cape Breton University, Canada

News, offers and calls for papers

Critical Arts is a peer-reviewed journal publishing six issues annually. Three of the six numbers are reserved for general issues and single submissions. Three are allocated to guest edited theme issues. The journal is owned by Critical Arts Projects and its co-editors. Our self-funded journal is jointly edited from the Universities of Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Critical Arts is licensed to the University of South Africa Press and Taylor & Francis for the international digital edition. Our editorial board and authorship is international as is our readership.

Critical Arts encourages conceptual freshness, textured writing and experiential analysis, that draws readers into its articles, narrative themes and its theoretical and methodological explorations.   

Critical Arts encourages articles, commentaries and book reviews that influence the ways in which the cultural and media studies are thought about and reflected on by those within and outside the disciplines. Our niche includes critical dialogues generated within the South-North and East-West relationships, with special reference to Africa and general Southern issues.

Critical Arts has published original articles by Nobel Laureates JM Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer. Recent authors have included Stuart Hall, Ntongela Masilela, Handel Kashope Wright, David Katiambo, You Wu, Helene Strauss and many from within Africa and the African diaspora.

Our thematic guest edited numbers are major projects that are geared to analysing and reshaping the field, edited by leaders in their respective disciplines. Guest editors included Kris Ruttan (Ghent), Hopeton Dunn (Botswana, West Indies), Michael Wessels (KwaZulu-Natal), Louise Bethlehem (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Leora Farber (Johannesburg), Jun Zeng (Shanghai), Doreen Wu (Hong Kong Polytechnic) and Tom O’Regan (Queensland).

Critical Arts offers full-time administrative support and extensive publisher services via its licenced publishers. The journal adheres to the best practice codes published by the South African Academy of Science.

The journal was launched in 1980 as an anti-apartheid publication geared to indigenising research methods and theories. It has since then retained its self-reflexive and critical perspective on its publishing orientation and practices as it moved from being a national to an international journal from 2005.