Call for Papers - Specific Themes

The absence of race in International Relations studies has been addressed in critical English language literature for at least two decades. Critiques of the invisibility and erasure of issues of race, racism, and the complicity of IR with this racialized historical process have been one of the most substantial object of analysis. However, the way whiteness informs epistemological commitments and naturalizes explanations of global politics remains absent from the field.

 

Foundational concepts such as sovereignty, modernity, war, and power are profoundly informed by whiteness—not as identity but as a power-driven viewpoint that structures global politics and the discipline itself. Race is central to global power dynamics. Nevertheless, critical epistemological efforts regarding race and racism continue to benefit from the geopolitics of knowledge that situates the production of such debates in Global North universities, although many scholars are from the Global South. The aim of this Special Issue is to propose a space to imagine possible theoretical futures beyond the silence of the whiteness that pervades global knowledge production in the field and to highlight perspectives addressing IR from a decolonial Global South standpoint and produced in Global South.

 

This Special Issue seeks to explore narratives and viewpoints that remain invisible even in the critical literature of International Relations. Furthermore, it aims to address not only Blackness as a predominant racial category but also Indigeneity, Amefricanity and other categories. Thus, whiteness must be regarded not as a neutral, normative, or referential category but as a socially constructed one. Moreover, we welcome proposals that address racism as a way of inhabiting the Earth, emphasizing that the racial crisis is also an ecological crisis. Articles addressing race and racism in IR from a postcolonial, decolonial and counter colonial standpoints are welcome.

 

We are seeking contributors for a Special Issue expanding on two core themes:

 

 

Racializing IR and Global Politics

What are the Global South's theoretical contributions to the study of race in International Relations?
What are the challenges and potentialities of thinking about the discipline from a position of subalternity and difference?
How is the idea of the national forged through borders and racial exclusion?
How does the international rest upon racialized boundaries?
 

Anti-Racist Struggles, Decolonial Critique, and Ecological Struggles

How do anti-racist, anti-sexist, and ecological struggles intersect?
How do anti-racist efforts and decolonial critiques operate in the discipline?
What are the limits and challenges of understanding global power dynamics from the Global South?
 

Authors should submit abstracts of up to 300 words by April 15, 2025, to the Contexto Internacional online system (https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/cint-scielo). In the submission process, authors should select "Research Article" as the submission type and inform in the cover letter (Step 5: Details & Comments) that the submission is for the Special Issue.Selected authors will be invited in mid-June 2025 to submit a complete draft for discussion in an online workshop in early August. Revised papers must then be submitted for double-blind peer review at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/cint-scielo. See Authors' Guidelines for further instructions: https://www.scielo.br/journal/cint/about/#instructions. Please contact the guest editors if you have any questions.

 

Schedule

April 15, 2025: submission of abstracts
May 1, 2023: decision by guest editors
June 15, 2025: submission of complete draft
Early August: online workshop
September 1, 2025: submission of revised versions to Contexto Internacional.
 

Special Issue Guest Editors:

Vinícius Santiago (University of Brasília, Brazil) - viniciuswbsantiago@gmail.com

Kléber Aparecido da Silva (University of Brasília, Brazil) - kleberunicamp@yahoo.com.br

Leketi Makalela (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) - leketi.makalela@wits.ac.za

Joaquim Dolz (University of Geneva, Switzerland) - joaquim.dolz-mestre@unige.ch

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