Special Issue CfP: Left Histories of a Digital World or the Digital World of Left History

In this Call for Papers, Left History invites interdisciplinary original submissions for a Special Issue on Left Histories of a Digital World or the Digital World of Left History.

What impact did the “digital turns” have on the left? What role does “the digital” play in left analyses of society, economy, and politics? Answers to these questions are increasingly important, given the global pandemic’s acceleration and expansion of our digital lives and the ways that these technologies and systems operate within pre-existing power structures and inequalities. Left History, a long-running interdisciplinary journal of historical inquiry and debate, seeks submissions for a special issue on the relationship between the left and the digital transformation, whether subject matter, method, or both. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: histories of science and technology; the political economy of digital worlds; power and social networks; and digital approaches to historical analysis.

Left History, a new entrant into open-access, online-only publishing, has long acted as forum for these kinds of discussions and debates. The journal regularly publishes work from a variety of academic disciplines and perspectives on the left. Articles, essays, interviews, and book reviews chart, to name just a few subjects, political economy and labour relations, gender and sexuality, race and racism, and political ideologies, intellectuals, and movements.

For inquiries, proposals, and submissions, contact us at lefthist@yorku.ca. Articles should be 6000 to 10000 words (20 to 35 double-spaced pages) and include a 200-word abstract. Please submit these items in Word Docx files. All articles will undergo double-blind peer review and we request that authors avoid submitting their articles to multiple journals. We welcome submissions until 1 November 2021 and aim to publish the special issue in Spring 2022.

Left History is a peer reviewed scholarly journal published bi-annually out of York University, with an editorial board of prominent left historians. We feature articles and reviews from established scholars, early-career scholars, and graduate students. To view the journal's style instructions, submit a manuscript, or for more information, please visit https://lh.journals.yorku.ca/. If you have any questions, please email us at lefthist@yorku.ca.