Penumbra: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Critical and Creative Inquiry, a peer-reviewed, online journal of Union Institute & University’s Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies program, is seeking submissions for its next issue. We have instituted a rolling submission policy; however, to be considered for volume eight the deadline is February 15, 2021.
Penumbra aims to promote social change through theoretically informed engagements with concrete issues and problems. We publish socially engaged, innovative, creative, and critical scholarship, with a focus on ethical, political, and aesthetic issues in education, humanities, public policy, and leadership.
Penumbra invites scholarship of all kinds, creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and visual works that address any aspect of the journal’s mission and scope. We seek submissions from graduate students, junior scholars, and emerging artists, in addition to more established critical and creative voices. All submissions undergo a double-blind peer review.
We do not accept previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but the editors should be notified immediately upon a work’s acceptance for publication elsewhere.
Guidelines
To have the scholarly paper & creative works considered for publication, complete the Submissions Form. The form requires the title of the work, author name(s), email(s), a brief bio(s), and a 200-250 word abstract. The submission for consideration will need to be uploaded to the form. Please note, the author name(s) should not appear anywhere on the manuscript in compliance with our double-blind peer-review process.
Submissions Form: https://form.jotform.com/PenumbraUnion/penumbra-submission-form
If you have any questions or issues using the form, please email the editor at penumbra.editor@myunion.edu.
Scholarly Submissions
Submit as Microsoft Word compatible documents (do not submit PDFs). Article manuscripts should be double-spaced and between 4,000 to 6,000 words in length. Please follow the Chicago Manual (Author-Date Style) guidelines for in-text citations and bibliography.
Creative Submissions
Submissions may include a maximum of five poems or flash prose works; a single short story or novel chapter of no more than 6,000 words; or creative non-fiction prose of up to 6,000 words. Submit as Microsoft Word compatible documents (do not submit PDFs). Interdisciplinary text-based works in non-traditional formats are also acceptable. Please query the editors at penumbra.editor@myunion.edu regarding text-based projects that do not meet our submission requirements.
Images and Diagrams Included in Manuscripts
All line diagrams and photographs are termed “Figures” and should be referred to as such in the manuscript. They should be numbered consecutively and presented in a form suitable for immediate reproduction (i.e. not requiring redrawing). They should be saved at 300 dpi and should be no smaller than 5 inches (130mm) on the shortest side. Images should be submitted as .jpg or .eps files. All figures should have short descriptive captions typed on a separate sheet.
Visual Art/Interdisciplinary Arts Projects
All visual artwork and proposed artists’ projects must be submitted electronically. A proposal for an artist’s project or portfolio should comprise a one-page written description accompanied by ten or fewer uploaded sample images. Also acceptable are hyperlinks to an online gallery of up to ten images, or up to three videos/multimedia pieces. Projects that do not meet these requirements will also be considered. Please contact the co-editors regarding artists’ projects that do not meet our submission requirements. If an original artwork for Penumbra is proposed, samples of comparable work should be submitted along with a one-page written proposal. All work must be submitted electronically. Please contact the co-editors if you have concerns about submission format.
Copyright Notice
The copyright for all work published in Penumbra is retained by the author(s)/artist(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. The submission of a manuscript or artwork to Penumbra will be taken to mean that the author/artist understands and agrees to the following terms: the manuscript/artwork represents original work not previously published; the manuscript/artwork is not under consideration elsewhere; appropriate written copyright permissions have been secured for republication of any copyrighted material contained in the manuscript; copyright for this article is retained by the author, with first publication rights granted to Penumbra; by virtue of its appearance in this open access journal, it is understood that the manuscript/artwork is freely available for use, with proper attribution, for educational and other non-commercial purposes; reuse of this article for commercial purposes by anyone other than the author/artist requires permission of the author/artist; the author/artist agrees to cite Penumbra as the original publication source whenever s/he later republishes this work in other platforms.