Call for Virtual Special Issues: Reading the Archive (MAQ)

Medical Anthropology Quarterly (MAQ) is soliciting proposals for virtual special issues in their new Reading the Archive series.

Reading the Archive is an online feature of MAQ that aims to expand our understanding of contemporary theoretical and social formations by thinking both laterally and historically.

Each issue of Reading the Archive hones in on a central thematic–including thematics that might seem peripheral or orthogonal to the conventional concerns of medical anthropology–and offers a curated collection of articles from the MAQ archive that help us generate new insights, and new questions, both about the thematic and about the nature and scope of medical anthropology itself.

Each issue is curated by a guest editor, and offers collection of 5-8 contemporary and classic articles drawn from the MAQ archive, along with an original critical introduction, and a set of additional resources to facilitate further thinking in the classroom and beyond. The articles in each issue will be made open access for 6 months.

Rather than solidifying a canon, Reading the Archive attunes to unexpected resonances across the shifting history of medical anthropological knowledge and practice, reading contemporary theoretical or analytical formations or timely issues of scholarly and public attention backwards into the MAQ archive. Our first two issues focus on disability anthropology (Molly Bloom) and the politics of water (Nadia Gaber).

Proposals are especially welcome from emerging scholars, and from scholars underrepresented in MAQ, including scholars who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color; scholars from the global south; disabled scholars; and LGBTQIA+ scholars.

Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis and should include:

Guest editor’s name, title, and institutional affiliation (if any).

  • One writing sample (blog posts, conference papers, or other shorter-format work is preferred).
  • Title and 250-word description of the proposed thematic issue which should:
    • identify a timely social, theoretical, or analytical question or problem of relevance to medical anthropology.
    • detail the importance and generative possibilities of situating that question/problem within the MAQ archive.
  • Bibliography of 3-5 MAQ articles that might be included in the issue.

Inquiries and proposals can be sent to Zoƫ Wool at zoe.wool@rice.edu with the subject line MAQ Reading the Archive.