Call for Contribution, #22

Starting from # 19-20 (2022), “L’Uomo Nero” is published online as an open access journal by Cactus – Contemporary Art Center at the University of Milan and Milano University Press (https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/uomonero).

The next issue, # 22, edited by Cristina Baldacci and Silvia Bignami, will be released in Fall 2025 and will be divided as usual into two main sections: one monographic and the other free-themed.

The monographic section of # 22 is entitled L’Uomo Nero Green and will focus on a wide range of research between the representation of nature, the commitment to environmental crisis and climate action, and ecological thinking in artistic and curatorial practices.

Possible themes of investigation include, but are not limited to:

• The representation, perception, rehabilitation of nature, landscapes and ecosystems through the use of different media (painting, photography, sculpture, applied arts, design, installation, video, performance, relational practices, immersive technologies);
• The entanglements between nature and artifice;
• The relationship between art, science and technology;
• The connection between the human and non-human (understood either as animal, vegetal, mineral or technological “being”);
• Interventions and strategies of environmental ethics;
• Political and social ecology, including non-Western perspectives;
• Ecologies of care, considered in a broad sense;
• Projects of co-authorship and co-habitation between human beings and nature;
• Exhibitions and museums as ecosystems;
• The rereading of art history from an ecocritical perspective;
• The ecology of images.

Two additional sections complete the issue: Fuoritema (Off topic) will feature a selected number of articles focused on topics not related to the monographic theme; Rarità, riscoperte, segnalazioni (Rares, Rediscovered, Notices) will collect shorter contributions: announcements, proceedings, discussions on small sets of sources, as well as short critical essays and, possibly, reviews.

The issue will also include contributions by artists (by invitation only).

From 2 to 15 January 2025, scholars interested in contributing to the issue are invited to submit their article proposals via the online procedure available on the journal website:

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/uomonero/about/submissionshttps://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/uomonero/about/submissions

Any contribution should conform to the following indications, otherwise it shall not be accepted:

– be written in Italian, English or French;

– be presented in a .doc Word file, containing the text, notes and any text to be published as an appendix to the article (transcriptions of documents, lists of sources or works etc.) and a list of captions for illustrations, prepared according to the editorial guidelines laid down in the EditorialGuidelines.pdf file (downloadable from this web address:     
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/uomonero/about/submissions#authorGuidelines);

– be accompanied by all illustrations, in separate .jpg files, in the format indicated in the Editorial Guidelines;

– A complete bibliography, ordered alphabetically, comprehensive of every bibliographic source mentioned in the article and in the footnotes, following the Editorial Guidelines*, have been uploaded separately in the dedicated field of the submission procedure. (* Except for italics, not allowed in this field).

– be accompanied by an Italian and English author’s biography (500 characters, including spaces) and by an English abstract of the article (1500 characters, including spaces);

– be accompanied by an e-mail specifying for which section of the journal the article is intended (the monographic section Green; Off Topic; Rares, Rediscovered, Notices). In the same e-mail, the author of the article (or the corresponding author, delegated by the co-authors, in the case of jointly-written articles) should explicitly declare, under his personal responsibility that:

- he is the author of the article and, in the case of jointly-written articles, has been delegated by the co-authors (whose full names and contact details must be given) to submit the article to the journal for publication;

- the scientific content of the article is original and the article is unpublished;

- neither he, nor the co-authors, have submitted the article for publication to another journal, publishers or editorial board, nor for presentation to the committee of any symposium, congress or study group; or, the article has previously been refused for publication or presentation, indicating date of submission, date of refusal and full details of contact person at the journal, publishers, editorial board, committee of symposium, congress or study group;

- all texts and documents cited, including article illustrations, are sent to the editors of «L’Uomo Nero» and the journal’s publishers royalty-free;

- should the article be accepted for publication, he will not republish its contents elsewhere, for twelve months following the scheduled publication date of issue 22  of «L’Uomo Nero» - he will not circulate, except for personal use, or republish electronic copies of the paginated article that will be sent to him as extracts;

- should he republish parts of the article or its contents (after twelve months following the scheduled publication date of issue 22 of «L’Uomo Nero»), he will explicitly cite «L’Uomo Nero» as the first place of publication;

The submission implies full acceptance of the above conditions.

To avoid conflicts of interest during the revision process, the author must also indicate in his accompanying e-mail:
– if he carries out activities of study, research or teaching at universities or other research institutes; if he participates in national or international research programmes; if the article contents are, even partly, derived from a study or thesis prepared at a university or other Italian or international research institute; if he has benefited from bursaries or research grants, even partial, for the studies resulting in the article. In all these cases, the author is invited to name, if applicable, the professor who supervised the thesis, as well as the professors, academics and bursary students who are or were part of his research programme.

The editorial board will accept for publication only the articles that meet all the above conditions and that scrupulously comply with the editorial rules. Articles submitted in incomplete form, missing the high resolution images, or any documentation requested in this call for contributions will be rejected.

All articles submitted to this call will be peer reviewed.

Articles held suitable for the journal will be reviewed by independent external reviewers (double-blind peer review). The Editorial Board will advise authors of acceptance before the 15^th of April 2025.

Download the Call here.