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Focus and Scope
What brings people together? What makes a collective possible? How do artists and cultural producers gather, organize, think, feel, and create together while working within and against institutions of power? What new forms of representation and material practice emerge through collective modes of creation? What tensions and power relations shape collective work?
For Volume 6 of Refract, Collectivities, we invite contributions that critically examine the spaces, labors, and affects that mediate collective, or otherwise collaborative, practices. We are interested not only in what collectivities produce, but also in the infrastructures and relationships that sustain them. These might include: the shared attachments that animate collective forms of research and preservation; the visible and less visible labors of skill-sharing and consciousness-raising that enable materials and knowledges to circulate, and artists to mobilize; and the spaces—official, provisional, or clandestine—that serve as both backdrop to and object of collective artistic and political intervention.
While we embrace the generative potentials of collective practice, we also recognize that collectivities are rarely uncomplicated. They can give rise to tensions and imbalances that challenge efforts to move together against the status quo; at the same time, productive contestation can reorient these efforts toward new ends. As such, we are also interested in the ways that conflict and difference fuel, hinder, or transform collective practices.
We invite submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Collaborative artistic, archival, and curatorial projects
Collective spaces of skill-sharing and creation, including studios, workshops, digital platforms, and outdoor spaces
Artist collectives, networks, coalitions, and labor unions
Community archives, libraries, and art registries
Visual and media activism
Artist engagements with mutual aid, solidarity, and movement work
Practices of assembly, people’s tribunals, public forums, and more-than-human assemblages
We accept submissions that emphasize visually-based research from a range of fields, including visual studies, film and media studies, art history, architectural history, anthropology, museum studies, archival studies, abolition studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and queer, gender, and feminist studies. Academics and artists at all stages in their careers, as well as independent scholars and cultural practitioners, are encouraged to apply. We particularly encourage submissions by graduate students.
Submission Checklist
We invite full submissions for the following:
- Written/scholarly submissions (3,000-7,000 words) can take the form of single- or co-authored essays, artistic-scholarly projects, interviews, and roundtables for anonymous peer-review.
We invite proposals (300-words and up to 5 images for creative/artistic submission) for the following:
- Creative/artistic submissions, including visual art, media, sound/audio, photography, creative writing, and other formats that complement a digital publication We will expect a completed submission including up to 15 images or work files with a 1,200-word project statement by January 11, 2027.
- Exhibition, film, or book reviews In your proposal, please include your object of review, your approach, and how you think it relates to the theme of the issue in your abstract. Undergraduate students are especially encouraged to submit a review. We will expect a completed submission of 700-1,000 words by January 11, 2027.
Be sure your submissions are accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We recommend using built-in software as found in Microsoft Word and/or Adobe Acrobat.
Licences
The following licences are allowed:
- CC BY 4.0
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Copyright Notice
The following is an agreement between Refract: An Open Access Visual Studies Journal (the Journal) and the submitter (the Author), governing the work currently being submitted, including the primary contribution as well as any supporting materials such as an abstract, data sets, media files, figures, or tables created by the Author and any co-authors (the Submission).
The Journal is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to readers or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
1. As consideration for publication in the Journal, the Author grants the Journal the following rights:
1.1. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to publish, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute the Work in perpetuity throughout the world in all means of expression by any method or media now known or hereafter developed; and
1.2. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to license others, including databases or printing vendors, to do any or all of the above on a non-exclusive basis.
1.3. Permission to publish the full piece or excerpts of the piece on related social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter. The Journal agrees that when doing so the Author will always be fully credited.
2. The Author warrants that:
2.1. The Author is the author of the Submission, or is authorized to act on behalf of the author(s) and copyright holder (if different from the author(s)), and has the power to convey the rights granted in this agreement.
2.2. If the Submission has multiple authors, the other authors are identified in the Submission, and the Author will inform the other authors of the terms of this agreement.
2.3. Any textual, graphic or multimedia material included in the Submission that is the intellectual property or work of another is identified and cited in the Submission.
2.4. If the Submission reproduces any material that is the intellectual property of another, the Author has received permission to publish that material in the Submission, or the material is being incorporated based on an informed, reasonable, and good faith application of fair use.
2.5. The Submission is the original work of the Author(s). To the best of the Author’s knowledge, it does not contain matter that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory; it does not knowingly violate another’s right of privacy, right of publicity, or other legal right; does not contain false or misleading statements; and is otherwise not unlawful.
2.6. The Submission has not been previously published, and is not pending review elsewhere. If this is not the case, the Author will provide the Journal with information about the other locations where the Submission appears or is pending review. Prior distribution of a Submission, including on a preprint server or in a repository, does not disqualify a Submission from potential publication; the Journal is primarily concerned with other appearances in similar publications.
2.7. If the Author is a student, the Author agrees to share their work and waive any privacy rights granted by FERPA or any other law, policy or regulation, with respect to the Submission, for the purpose of publication. If the Author has any student co-authors, the Author will obtain a signed copy of this agreement from those co-authors.
2.8. The Submission complies with all relevant Journal policies and submission guidelines provided on the Journal’s website at the time of submission, including any policies on conflict of interest, informed consent, human and animal rights, or appropriate content.
3. Indemnification
The Author will indemnify and hold the Journal harmless against loss, damages, expenses, awards, and judgments arising from breach of any of the above warranties.
4. Author’s Rights and Obligations
4.1. Nothing in this agreement constitutes a transfer of the copyright by the Author. As such, the Author retains all rights not expressly granted herein, including but not limited to, the right:
4.1.1. To reproduce and distribute the Submission, and to authorize others to reproduce and distribute the Submission, in any format;
4.1.2. To post the Submission in an institutional repository or the Author’s personal or departmental web page.
4.1.3. To include the Submission, in whole or in part, in another work.
4.2. If the Author distributes the Submission on another website or in another publication (as described above), the Journal will be cited as the source of first publication.
5. Rights for Readers
The Journal and the Author agree that the Submission will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), or other later version of the same license, that allows others to copy, distribute, translate, adapt, and build upon the Submission, even commercially, as long as they provide appropriate credit to the author(s). Anyone who uses or redistributes the Submission under this license must indicate any changes that were made, must link to the license, and cannot imply that the author(s) endorse them or their use. More information about this license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
6. Termination
The Author agrees to the terms of this agreement for the Submission being considered for publication. If the Submission is declined, this agreement is terminated.
About
Refract is an online journal founded and operated by graduate students in 2016 and dedicated to conversations about visual culture, non-canonical methodologies, and divergent histories. We publish early-career and established scholars, students, and artists in the genres of the academic essay, critical review, creative work, and experimental artist statement/essay. We are interested in work that employs visuality as a lens to engage geographies and histories that diverge from U.S. political and academic empire, and uses the tools and methods of visual studies and artistic practice in pursuit of equity and justice. We encourage submissions from multiple academic fields, expansive considerations of artistic practice/s, and multiple ways of knowing. We seek pieces that theorize, dream, and imagine as intervention, as well as pieces that challenge the author's, artist's, and editorial board’s intellectual commitments as they reflect on the visual as a site of encounter, entanglement, and social change.
Peer Review
This journal operates a single anonymous peer review model.
Publication Cycle
This journal publishes annually.