Call for Papers — March 13, 2026

testimonio/s

WSQ, spring 2027

Issue Editors
CYNTHIA BEJARANO, New Mexico State University
MILENA GRASS, P. Universidad Católica de Chile
BERNARDITA LLANOS, Brooklyn College, CUNY

This special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly focuses on the theme of testimonio/s.

This special issue focuses on testimonio as a genre that is inextricably connected to gender, class, and ethnicity and is used by women from the Américas to claim their agency while challenging multiple forms of oppression, as Maya Quiche Nobel Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu reminds us. Testimonio/s have evolved into different forms incorporating human rights discourse and varied standpoints, from individual testimonialistas, truth-tellers, knowledge holders, and “witness-observers” (Cynthia Bejarano), to feminist activists and collectives who denounce systemic violence against women and other marginalized communities throughout Latin America. This issue invites hemispheric perspectives, as well as local, regional, and national ones, on the various forms testimonio/s have taken in recent decades, spanning performance, visual arts, digital activism, and textual renderings where first-person truth-telling and third-person witness-bearing are integral for collective group action.

As guest editors, we seek to curate a corpus of written and visual work focused on historicizing, archiving, remembering, memorializing, researching, exploring, and/or revealing new and historical truth-telling mechanisms within the vein of testimonio writing, truth-telling, sharing, and cocreating. We aim to identify contributors and testimonio/testimonial work that uses testimonio/s as a vessel to clamor for the recognition of people’s lived experiences; grievances; individual, gender, cultural, political, economic, collective, and human rights struggles; and triumphs in acts of bearing witness, testifying and recounting memories, and sharing origin and truth-telling stories.

Themes that the issue is interested in addressing include:

Possible questions that submissions could answer include:

● What are new and emerging forms of testimonio writing, art, and performance attributed to the genre of testimonio/s born from the Américas?

● How have testimonios evolved into new mediums using data and technology?

● How have testimonios been used to confront fear and violence?

● How have testimonios worked toward restoration, healing, and rejuvenation toward an ethics and ethos of care?

● What new discursive and/or visual elements does feminist activism incorporate to testimonio/s?

● How have the new forms of digital posts and reels of first-person narratives impacted testimonio as a genre?

WSQ accepts submissions in all printable media, including academic articles, memoir, manifesto, literary fiction or other prose, poetry, and visual art. Especially encouraged to submit are scholars, artists, creative writers, and activists who themselves experience various forms of marginalization within nation states in the Global North and Global South. Please note that WSQ peer-reviews are not performed by AI.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Deadline: March 13, 2026

Scholarly articles should be submitted to WSQ.submittable.com. Upload one Word document that includes the anonymized, complete article. Directly in Submittable, not as an attachment, please write a cover page that includes the article title, abstract, keywords, and a short author bio. Remove all identifying authorial information from the file uploaded to Submittable. Scholarly submissions must not exceed 6,000 words (including un-embedded notes and works cited) and must comply with formatting guidelines at feministpress.org/submission-guidelines. For questions, email the guest issue editors at WSQEditorial@gmail.com.

Artistic works (whose content relates clearly to the issue theme) such as creative prose (fiction, essay, memoir, and translation submissions between 2,000 and 2,500 words), poetry (3 poems maximum per submitter), and other forms of visual art or documentation of performative artistry should be submitted to WSQ.submittable.com. Note that creative submissions may be held for six months or longer. We do not accept work that has been previously published. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if the editors are notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere. Visual artists are also asked to submit a document containing captions for all works (including title, date, and materials), an artist’s statement and a short bio, each 100 words or less. For questions, email the guest issue editors at WSQEditorial@gmail.com.

For works that are difficult to categorize, including those that fall between academic articles and personal narratives or creative essays, please choose the hybrid works option on Submittable, and explain the nature of the work in your cover page. Please especially indicate whether the work requires academic peer review.

All submitters please note that if your submission contains images (including images embedded into a larger article or essay) please include them as separate attachments of 300dpi or more. Please also include a short bio and current email address [all submitters, directly onto the Submittable form, not as an attachment] as well as an artist’s statement and image caption [visual artists] or an abstract and keywords [academic submissions].

About WSQ

Since 1972, WSQ has been an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of emerging perspectives on women, gender, and sexuality. Its peer-reviewed interdisciplinary thematic issues focus on such topics as Open Call, Unbearable Being(s), Pandemonium, Nonbinary, State/Power, Black Love, Solidão, Asian Diasporas, Protest, Beauty, Precarious Work, At Sea, Solidarity, Queer Methods, Activisms, The Global and the Intimate, and Trans-, combining legal, queer, cultural, technological, and historical work to present the most exciting new scholarship, fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, and visual arts on ideas that engage popular and academic readers alike. WSQ is edited by Shereen Inayatulla (York College, CUNY) and Andie Silva (York College and the Graduate Center, CUNY), and published by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Visit feministpress.org/wsq.