DIVEST.

The theme of the 25th Anniversary Volume of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture,
and Society is 'Divest.' This is, of course, occasioned by the case of Israel, and comparisons to South
Africa/Apartheid and other historical movements to divest, which a multiracial coalition of students, at
Columbia and throughout the world, have acutely returned to the center of public debate. Their demands
of financial accountability, transparency, and divestment have, in turn; called into question, intensified,
and in some cases upended historical and contemporary social-cultural and political-economic
entanglements, solidarities, and investments.

Souls invites you to think with us— at once topically, in the present/real, and more capaciously, to
envision the conceptual-political labor of divestment. The Black intellectual tradition out of which Souls
emerged has called for this over many generations. For us, divestment is not merely a process of
withdrawal. Accept this invitation from our storied, new journal, to engage a creative practice of inventing
otherwise. In what, where, and in whom must we invest? We invite you to show us your best work. Study,
write, make art, or critically appraise an important moment, object, issue, or event in your language--
stretching toward the multilingual, multi-genre, multimedia engagement to which we aspire.

Is divestment an abolitionist project? A Black feminist imperative? A chimera, fool’s errand, or trap?
Show us. Think through whether (or which) Black folks hold enough "controlling shares" in anything to
warrant the term "divestment," as opposed to mere dis-investment of small measures of social, cultural, or
material capital. What does divestment look like from various global vantages? What are its connections
to reparations discourse; or to boycotts and sanctions? Show us the historical and/or economic
significance of the terms of divestment/disinvestment – such as "sell-off," "spin-off," "split-off," and
"carve-out." Assay a declension of divest. We want to know, for example, how scholars, artists,
advocates, and practitioners envision divestment from whiteness. And/or a divestiture of masculinity, or
gender itself? Can the poor, or aspiring middle class really invest, or is this a bourgeois fiction? Push
against assumptions and just-so narratives with new data and/or critical (re)examination.

Particularly germane to the work of reflecting 25-years of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics,
Culture, and Society: what about dis-investment from notions of "rigor," objectivity, and/or
disciplinarity? How does this relate to the DuBoisian tradition that Souls has exemplified in twenty-four
volumes -and-counting? “Won’t you celebrate with (us)” (Lucille Clifton, 1993) the 25-year history of the
journal-- inaugurating its expanded ambit online -- by joining the conversation? Our editors will be
happy to receive your work or short proposal, after you have reviewed the submission guidelines and mission
statement on our website. Please contact souls@columbia.edu with any questions.

We are accepting submissions on a rolling basis with a hard deadline of January 6, 2025 at 5PM EST .