Self-Determination and Sovereignty
A Call for Proposals from the Radical History Review
Issue number 156 (October 2026)
Abstract Deadline: November 30, 2024
Co-Edited by Marc Goulding and Bonny Ibhawoh
In 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma that significantly altered the scope of the state’s legal authority. This decision reinforced the status of the Muscogee Creek Nation in eastern Oklahoma and limited the state’s police powers. Many understood McGirt as a victory for indigenous self-governance. Seldom-questioned realms of state authority, such as legal jurisdiction and control of revenue, now came into question.
A visitor to Oklahoma may notice automobile license plates not issued by US states, but by Native nations. The plate can be seen as a signifier of authority – albeit limited. This raises questions about the boundaries not only of legal authority, but of coherence more broadly. How a community identifies itself, as well as if and how it is recognized by others is often contested. Though the term and concept nation is significant – and venerated by many – these questions reach far beyond geography and political structures. How communities understand themselves along registers not contained by language, culture, geography, or political philosophy is just as critical as a license plate.
Yet the kinds of authority symbolized by a tag, a passport, or a flag do carry weight. How a community asserts itself and whether it is recognized externally says much about power, and how power is wielded. At base, questions such as “why is nation privileged” and “who gets to call themselves a nation” remain hotly contested. The Oklahoma example is just one possible illustration of these weighty questions. Taiwan and China, Palestine and Israel, Ukraine and Russia – with tragically more dire stakes and possibilities – raise similar questions about self-determination. What constitutes a community? Which communities can become self-governing? What authority presumes to answer such questions? How are these questions and dynamics historically situated?
Radical History Review seeks submissions for a forthcoming issue that engages with histories and concepts of self-determination and sovereignty, the limitations of such concepts, and the manners in which notions of independence have been dissected and atomized. The scope of the issue is global, and we welcome submissions from across geographical, conceptual, and temporal ranges.
Independence clearly matters. What this means, however – self-determination, sovereignty – has not always been historically clear. These concepts have been claimed, denied, applied, and blocked in myriad ways throughout the past and in the present. How independence has been pruned and manipulated, sleight-handed and trimmed, illuminates much about the imbalanced and unequal ways in which legitimacy is and has been recognized and weaponized.
This issue of RHR will address a number of questions, including:
- How are/were “the people,” “the community,” or “the nation” identified?
- Where is self-determination reckoned or granted, and by whom?
- What is the scope and limit of self-determination as a “human right”?
- What are/were some of the part-way stages between “dependence” and “independence?”
- How can self-determination be truly measured?
- Is there a line between self-determination and sovereignty, and if so, where is it?
- What are/were some of the ways in which independence has been compromised?
RHR publishes material in a variety of forms. We welcome submissions that use images as well as text. In addition to monographic articles based on archival research, we encourage submissions to our various departments, including: Historians at Work; Teaching Radical History; Public History; Interviews; and (Re)Views.
Procedure for submission of articles:
By November 30, 2024, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish to submit to our online journal management system, ScholarOne. To begin with ScholarOne, sign in or create an account at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/dup-rhr. After signing in, select “Author” from the menu up top, and click “Begin Submission” or “Start New Submission.” Upload a Word or PDF document, including any images within the document. After uploading your file, select “Proposal” as the submission type and follow the on-screen instructions. Please write to contactrhr@gmail.com if you encounter any technical difficulties or have any other questions about the process.
By December 30, 2024, authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for further consideration. The due date for completed articles is expected to be in April, 2024. Those articles selected for publication will be included in issue 156 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in October, 2026.
Abstract Deadline: November 30, 2024
Contact: contactrhr@gmail.com