To propose a special issue of the Getty Research Journal, prospective guest editors can reach out via email to the GRJ Editorial Office for a proposal form. The form must be filled out for a proposal to be considered.
We require an open call for manuscripts for all special issues of the journal; proposals for volumes with content assembled in advance will not be accepted. There is a maximum of two guest editors per special issue. Manuscripts will be processed through the journal’s submission portal on Scholastica.
All content for special issues is put through double-anonymous peer review, which may entail the same reviewers for an entire issue, separate reviewers for each manuscript, or a combination of both, depending on the needs of the content and any overlaps in subject areas. Guest editors will be asked to identify anyone who should not serve as a peer reviewer, including conflicts of interest. Overseen by the executive editor, guest editors are responsible for producing a call for submissions, identifying peer reviewers, collecting/evaluating reviews, and developing articles. Approval of the final selection of content advanced for publication remains under the jurisdiction of the executive editor. Any content submitted by the guest editor(s) will be reviewed separately, including an introduction.
Calls for submission to special issues will appear on the journal website and will be disseminated by the journal editors through their established networks and channels. Guest editors will be asked to disseminate the call through their own scholarly networks and communities.
Current Calls for Submission to Special Issues
“Artistic Exchanges between the Eastern Bloc and Northern Africa during the Global Cold War”
Guest Editors: Katarzyna Falęcka (Newcastle University, UK) and Przemysław Strożek (Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
We invite submissions for a special issue of the Getty Research Journal titled “Artistic Exchanges between the Eastern Bloc and Northern Africa during the Global Cold War.” The issue will explore how transregional artistic exchanges between countries of the former Eastern Bloc and Northern Africa shaped modern art during the global Cold War.
During the global Cold War, fine art students from Northern Africa arrived in the Eastern Bloc as part of university exchanges and to attend World Festivals of Youth and Students designed to cement anti-colonial and socialist alliances, while their European counterparts took up teaching positions in Northern Africa and co-organized arts festivals. The focus of this special issue unravels the creative potential and cosmopolitan dimensions of cities including Algiers, Casablanca, Leipzig, Prague, and Warsaw. By adopting a transregional focus, it seeks to examine the impact of artists’ mobility on their practices of making, displaying, and teaching art, emphasizing cross-cultural influences in processes of cultural decolonization and the formation of global Cold War cultural landscapes.
Focusing on transfers, contact zones, and reciprocal exchanges, the issue builds on the “mobilities turn” in the humanities and social sciences, as well as on recent developments in global histories of art and architecture. The issue is especially committed to uncovering the situated dimensions through which the global Cold War was experienced and to examining how cross-cultural artistic and institutional interactions played out “on the ground.” Contents of the issue will not romanticize these artistic exchanges, many of which were ideologically conditioned, but seek to understand how artists positioned themselves in the broader landscape of Cold War politics, cultural diplomacy, and state expectations. At the same time, the issue’s framework encourages authors to reflect on what can be learned from these cross-cultural dialogues and how their study can expand the methodologies through which we study art and its histories.
We invite contributions on all aspects of such cross-regional encounters, including exhibition histories, pedagogy, artistic interventions in public spaces, and cultural collaborations, among others. The issue adopts an expanded definition of modern art to include textiles, ceramics, puppet theater props, glass, monuments and memorials, prints, newspaper illustrations, and stamp designs, reflecting the versatility of artistic production across Northern Africa and the former Eastern Bloc during this period. We are especially interested in contributions that explore the relevance of research on transregional artistic encounters for art history more broadly. Submissions will be accepted in English and in French. Submissions in French will be translated into English by a translator appointed by the editors.
We invite prospective authors to send an abstract of up to 250 words, a one-sentence biography, and 5–7 keywords to katarzyna.falecka@newcastle.ac.uk by October 30, 2025. Each abstract will be reviewed by the editors and receive a response by mid-December. Selected authors will be asked to send a full manuscript of 4,000–7,000 words by June 1, 2026. The editors will subsequently facilitate peer review and development of the submissions; pending successful review, accepted authors will submit a final draft for publication in the special issue.