Aims and scope
Critical African Studies seeks to advance critical approaches and theoretical innovation within African Studies. We aim to champion representation and inclusion, and seek to support and advance the decolonization of knowledge. We publish theoretically informed scholarship of importance for Africa and the diaspora, from diverse disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We encourage pieces of critical enquiry that subvert colonial framings and question long-held or widely assumed truths, and that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

We offer authors a more flexible publishing platform than other journals, allowing them greater space to develop empirical discussions alongside theoretical and conceptual engagements. Our aim is to publish scholarly articles that generate and engage with theory from the African continent and its disaporas. We aspire to publish articles based on original empirical research that has been undertaken with the highest ethical research standards.

Critical African Studies publishes original research articles, review essays, commentaties, and debates and provocations that meet the aims of the journal, and that offer original and critical empirical and theoretical insights into African Studies debates. The journal welcomes proposals from Guest Editors for special issues or special sections.

CrAS welcomes review essays offering original and insightful analysis of the state of the literature on a given research area within the journal’s remit. This can be done through engaging with three or more recently published books on Africa on a given theoretical debate or substantive topic, highlighting their contributions and drawing specific theoretical implications for future research agendas within specific domains of African Studies. We are also happy to consider Review Essays which have a different approach, for instance, offering a broader critical assessment of key debates relevant to the subject, and offering original ideas about new theoretical entry-points. Review Essays will be double blind peer reviewed as normal and should be between 5000-6000 words. Prospective review essay authors should first send a 1-2 page proposal to the Editors via critical.african.studies@ed.ac.uk. The proposal should, if relevant, identify the books that would form the core of the review, and articulate a clear argument about their significance. Where the review essay is not framed around any specific books, a clear summary of the key debates and the contribution of the essay should be included in the proposal.