Public Humanities is an international open-access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. 

The journal invites submissions for the upcoming issue A New Existentialism?, which will be guest edited by Sarah Nuttall and Debjani Ganguly.

The deadline for submissions is 1 January 2027. 

Description 

How is everyone doing?

At a routine meeting of the Editorial Board of this journal in March 2026, this innocuous question erupted into disquiet, tension, unease. Speaking from vastly different parts of the world, there was an unmistakable sense of a planet slipping beyond available comprehension and unplugging us from work and life routines. As wars in the Middle East expand and fires spread from apartment blocks reduced to rubble to bombed oil refineries and shipping corridors, profound geopolitical, personal, even psychic rifts leave us grasping for the language and feel of the moment, the falling apart of things, the zeitgeist of an endangered now.

For the most part, this planetary sense of rupture and breaking open of the world that went before, always unevenly yet also often now on scales that exceed human comprehension, seldom invokes earlier modes of mid-twentieth century existentialism. It is also true that many critical traditions, notably in Black studies, have addressed worlds that break open, even end. This issue asks in a more sustained way and across numerous contexts both North and South: how are we experiencing existential questions, including existential risk, today? Can we talk of a new existentialism?

What is it like to be in the twenty-first century?

This issue of Public Humanities invites short pieces on this question, in registers which may be foreboding, frustrated, fuming, fertile, frank, formidable, fearful, and more. The aim of the issue is to give vent—and vitality—to a critical public humanities alive to the powerful pressures of our present.

Submission Guidelines

Article submissions should be no more than 2,000 words, not including abstract, footnotes, and bibliography.

Submissions should be written in accessible language for a wide readership across and beyond the humanities: see How to Write for Public Humanities.

Authors should consult the journal’s Author Instructions prior to submission. 

All authors will be required to declare any funding and/or competing interests upon submission: see the journal’s Publishing Ethics guidelines for more information. 

Articles will be peer reviewed for both content and style.

Articles will appear digitally and open access in the journal.

Contacts

The editors are happy to discuss potential articles: contact Sarah Nuttall at Sarah.Nuttall@wits.ac.za.

Questions regarding peer review can be sent to the Public Humanities inbox at publichumanities@cambridge.org.

Submit an Article

All submissions should be made through the Public Humanities online peer review system.