Visual Americas: Image, Text, Performance
Edited by Saniye Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş and  Tanfer Emin Tunç
Staff editor: Paweł Jędrzejko
RIAS Vol. 19, Spring-Summer (1/2027)
(Call open until Dec. 30th, 2025)

As we approach the end of the twenty-first century’s first quarter, we find ourselves in an era that W.J.T. Mitchell famously termed the “pictorial turn”—a period marked by the abundance and explosion of visual imagery. Indeed, the phenomenon is by no means new; our species has always relied on its visual perception, in combination with other senses, creating a hybridity of perception expressed through cultural and artistic products. Visuals and visuality have become the expected and primary end-points of human experience and are key in our interpretation of the world. Moreover, what Mitchell described as a “postlinguistic, postsemiotic rediscovery,” a novel burgeoning of the visual, is placing the image, regardless of the form in which it is created and presented, at the center of our social and cultural interactions. Recognizing the crucial role of visuality in shaping our everyday experiences, we invite scholars and practitioners to contribute to a vibrant dialogue on the role and impact of visuality in the American context. (Click here to read the full CFP)

Digital Americas: Global Perspectives on American Narratives Online
RIAS Vol. 20, Fall-Winter (2/2027)
Guest-edited by: Olga Ackroyd and Sara Riccetti Selim
Staff Editor: Gabriela Vargas Cetina
(Call open until June 30th, 2026)

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has reshaped not only how stories circulate, but also how they are produced, mediated, archived, and interpreted. Across the Americas, long characterized by dynamic transitions in media, from print and photography to radio, film, and television—the contemporary shift towards digital environments marks a significant cultural and epistemic threshold. Emerging online literary forms, participatory storytelling practices, and algorithmically shaped modes of reading present challenges and opportunities, and invite innovative theoretical approaches. This issue of Review of International American Studies seeks to investigate how digitality transforms American narratives within hemispheric, transoceanic, and global contexts. (Click here to read the full CFP)

Eastern Thought in the Americas
Edited by Anjali Singh and Anita Patterson
Staff Editors: Gabriela Vargas Cetina and Paweł Jędrzejko
RIAS Vol. 21, Fall-Winter (1/2028)
(Call open until December 30th, 2026)

Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, have profoundly influenced various facets of life in the Americas. The intersections of Eastern thought with North American, Latin American, Caribbean, and Pacific Islands philosophy, and letters, have a rich and varied history, beginning with the influence of Eastern philosophies on Herman Melville and the Transcendentalists. Melville’s “Buddhist” fascinations gave rise to poems, such as “Buddha”, while his earlier insights into Zoroastrianism and Hinduism permeate many of his sea-locked novels. Emerson’s exploration of Hindu and Buddhist texts is evident in his essays, where he extolled the virtues of self-reliance and the interconnectedness of all life. This legacy continued through the Modernist movement, with poets like T.S. Eliot, who incorporated themes from the Upanishads into his seminal work, The Waste Land. The Beat Generation further cemented the presence of Eastern thought in American literature, with figures like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg drawing heavily on Buddhist practices and philosophies, and its teachings on spontaneity and mindfulness (Click here to read the whole CFP)