Black histories have often been marginalised, fragmented, or erased within dominant historical narratives, shaped by colonial archives, institutional silences, and unequal structures of knowledge production. In recent years, scholars, curators, artists and activists have increasingly sought to recover, reinterpret, and re-centre these histories, drawing on alternative archives, oral traditions, material culture, and creative practices. Decolonial approaches challenge not only what is remembered, but how history is written, preserved and circulated, foregrounding questions of power, voice, and epistemic justice.
This Collection invites interdisciplinary scholarship that critically engages with the recovery, interpretation and representation of Black histories across global contexts. We particularly encourage work that interrogates colonial and postcolonial frameworks, explores innovative methodologies, and highlights the diversity of Black experiences across time and space. We welcome contributions from history, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, literature, art history, museum and archival studies, anthropology and related fields.
We invite papers that engage with topics including (but not limited to):
- Decolonising archives and historiography: Critical approaches to colonial archives; alternative, community and counter-archives; archival silences and absences.
- Oral histories and memory practices: Storytelling, testimony, and intergenerational transmission as methods for recovering Black histories.
- Black histories beyond the West: Histories of Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia and diasporic communities; transnational and global perspectives.
- Slavery, empire and their legacies: Reassessments of the transatlantic slave trade, colonial economies, and their ongoing social and cultural impacts.
- Museums, heritage and representation: Curatorial practices, restitution debates, and the politics of displaying Black histories in public institutions.
- Literature, art and cultural production: Creative works as sites of historical recovery, resistance and reinterpretation.
- Race, identity and historical narratives: The construction of racial identities within historical discourse; challenges to dominant historiographies.
- Digital humanities and new methodologies: Digital archives, mapping projects, and innovative tools for uncovering and sharing Black histories.
- Activism and public history: Community-led initiatives, memorialisation, and the role of public engagement in reshaping historical understanding.
We particularly encourage submissions that foreground underrepresented voices, challenge established narratives, and bridge disciplinary boundaries in the study of Black histories.
Editors
Submission status: Open
Submission deadline:
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