CFP: Southern Quarterly: Special Issue on Digitization and Southern History and Culture

The Southern Quarterly regularly publish submissions of interdisciplinary scholarly articles; interviews with major Southern writers, composers, and artists; unpublished archival materials; photo essays; and poems anchored in the ethos of the South. Guest editors Andrew McSorley and Jamie O’Quinn (both from the Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub at the University of Southern Mississippi) invite submissions for a special issue on Digitization and Southern history and culture. From the call:

This issue seeks to explore how digital technologies – and specifically the act of digitization – are reshaping the histories, imagination, and storytelling experiences of the South. Digitization processes have transformed how stories are preserved, circulated, and reinvented. We welcome interdisciplinary and creative scholarship that examines digitization as both a material process and a force of cultural imagination, preservation, and change. Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Case studies of community archives, oral history initiatives, or grassroots digital preservation
• Literary, or artistic responses to technology in the south
• Digital archives and digitization projects in southern contexts
• The politics and labor of preservation
• Public history, memory, and heritage in digital spaces

We encourage submissions from scholars, artists, archivists, and practitioners whose work engages with the promises and limitations of digitization, especially in the ways that digitization intersects with Southern history, as well as its future.

Submissions are due by 31 May 2026 for the October/November 2026 issue and should include “Special Issue: Digitization” in their title. Visit the journal’s website for full submission guidelines. Email general questions SouthernQuarterly[at]usm.edu.