The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology publishes original scholarship in English, Spanish and Portuguese that are grounded in ethnography.
JLACA publishes the following types of articles:
Provocations
Events
Research Articles
Dossiers
In-Focus Issues
SLACA Awards and Keynotes
Reviews
To Send Books/Films for Review
JLACA rankings:
Impact factor: 0.588
ISI Journal CitationReports © Ranking: 2018: 69/90 (Anthropology)
Provocations / Provocaciones / Provações
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology invites submissions for articles that critically challenge, extend and reformulate current thinking and research in all areas of Latin American and Caribbean anthropology. Provocations are based on rigorous argumentation and grounded in the ethnographic, historical and material realities of Latin America and the Caribbean. Authors are welcome to explore innovative modes and rhetorics of writing—including the use of images, sound recordings and multi-media—as well as to work within inherited styles and text-based forms of ethnography. Under this submission category, JLACA accepts manuscripts with an array of aims or genre forms. This includes, for example, articles that:
- create or question experimental, visual, or multi-media ethnographies
- explore, critique or propose analytical or interpretive methodologies, fieldwork methods, or inter- and intra-disciplinary strategies
- deliberate, debate or construct theoretical tools, concepts or frameworks of understanding or explanation of ethnographic realities
- engage in and advance collaborative processes of exchange with scholarly, cultural, or other types of communities and social organizations
- interpret and explain alternative histories, possible futures or emergent imaginaries
- interrogate basic assumptions and ideas of Latin America and the Caribbean as regions and as anthropological objects of inquiry in relation to global processes
- connect different anthropological subfields or integrate other social science and humanities approaches into an expanded anthropological horizon
Provocations/Provocaciones/Provações is a venue for anthropologists to develop, propose and debate new ways of thinking, doing, visualizing, and experiencing anthropological research in Latin America and the Caribbean. Articles present compelling arguments and evidence for rethinking issues that are or that the author argues should be of major significance for Latin American and Caribbean anthropology. In publishing these Provocations / Provocaciones / Provações, the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology seeks to establish its role as a premier journal that guides and shapes the present and future ways of doing anthropological research in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Manuscripts cannot normally exceed 10,000 total number of words. Supplementary video and audio are welcome and encouraged
Events / Sucesos al Momento
On occasion the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology can fast track the review process of manuscripts that offer time-sensitive sociopolitical commentaries and cultural analyses of current, emergent events. Manuscript submissions are between 4000 and 7000 words with limit of six images. Authors are encouraged to use supplementary audio and video materials that would be published on the JLACA designated online platform.
This category type of publication focuses on events that are happening “now” in the present moment as objects of ethnographic description. We take events in the most inclusive sense to include key moments that are not only overtly political or economic or that reference to dominant agents or processes of history (such as the State, Class, Race or capitalism, globalization, etc.). We also understand events to include those less visible conjunctures of quotidian life that are more often marked as “cultural” or “social.” JLACA therefore encourages authors to conceptualize and explain the notion of “event” that they use to ground their description, argument and analytical commentary.
Submissions of this type should provide historical and ethnographic description of the event and its contexts as the means to explore encompassing significance in terms, for example, of global interconnections, comparative dynamics, or possible futures. We encourage deliberations on how the event relates to processes found in or connected to other global regions and contexts beyond the Americas; or, how the event may motivate critical assessment of the idea of Latin America and Caribbean as regions.
Research Articles
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology invites submissions based on original, ethnographic research in any area of anthropology. We welcome articles that are interdisciplinary in nature, such as that integrate fieldwork, methodologies, research issues, and conceptual frameworks from related disciplines, such as history, or from different anthropological subfields. Research articles are expected to have a theoretical focus, a conceptual argument, grounding in current literatures, and to contribute new understandings of the contemporary sociohistorical realities of Latin America and the Caribbean.
JLACA is a leading venue for the publication of ethnographic research. We understand anthropology in an inclusive sense to encompass all subfields. The editors especially want to encourage authors working on questions that are historically under-represented in JLACA, such as:
- Research articles related to the Caribbean, Caribbean diaspora, and global interconnections of Caribbean with other world regions.
- Research articles that focus on art, aesthetics and cultural production that integrate analytical methodologies from other humanities disciplines into an ethnographic-historical approach.
- Research articles on archaeological or biophysical materialities, histories, discourses, practices, and interpretations as these are connected to ethnographically accessible sociocultural or sociolinguistic processes.
- Research articles that explore and reframe the interfaces, connections and similarities– differences between anthropologies associated with rubrics of applied, practicing, and basic research.
Research articles are limited to 8000 total words, including endnotes, bibliography, tables, charts, captions, and body of text. Authors are encouraged to make use of images and other audio or video materials. Please provide captions with relevant ethnographic information.
Dossiers
Dossiers are groupings of articles that have been individually submitted and accepted. These groupings are determined by the Editor in Chief on the basis of shared content, such as research problems, themes, or frameworks. The editorial staff seeks to publish articles that have been accepted for publication in ways that enhance the searchability and contribution of these articles. The designation and assignment of articles to a dossier is wholly within the jurisdiction of the editorial staff. In other words dossiers are not initiated by authors. If you are interested in organizing a special issue to be considered for In-Focus Issue please review the criteria below.
In-Focus Issues
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology invites the submission of proposals for an In–Focus Special Issue consisting of articles dealing with a shared research issue or problem. Individually and as a group the articles should deepen our knowledge of particular situations based in grounded research: The focus on and exploration of a particular issue in specific ethnographic and historical contexts can pivot our thinking on, approach to, or understandings of the issues in question.
These collections should approximate 40,000 total words divided into three to six articles, typically consisting of four Research Articles (see description above) as well as an Introduction and a concluding Critical Commentary / Reflections (4-6,000 words each). Authors are encouraged to integrate images or other supplementary audio and visual materials into their analyses. An alternative model is three Provocation type submissions (see description above;), plus an Introduction and a concluding Critical Commentary / Reflections (5,000 words maximum each).
Organizers and authors wishing to integrate extensive use of audio, visual or audiovisual materials are encouraged. They should include a separate brief paragraph that clarifies the types and quantities of each medium and how they contribute to the argument, evidence or analysis in order to determine specific limitations for the individual and collective submissions.
Introductions and concluding Critical Commentary/Reflections should underscore the significant, value and contribution of the articles and collection as a whole. These “book-end” texts go beyond a summary re-statement of the content of other articles that comprise the collection and must include some broader analytical argument that reviews and assesses existing research on the topics, theories, methods, problems or issues that are the primary concern of In Focus articles. They should have significant discussion of an analytical and historical perspective on how the key issues or problems have been studied in the past, how the In Focus articles work with, against, differently than these historical tendencies of scholarship, and what kinds of future questions emerge to guide us (or that we should avoid). Introductions and Critical Commentary/Reflections must be submitted for review at the same date (within a 2-3 day window) as the other articles that comprise the In Focus collection.
Each article is evaluated individually in the established review process. Authors interested in organizing an In–Focus Special Issue should submit proposals to the Editor in Chief by email. Proposal should in Calisto or Times Roman, single spaced and include a statement, not exceeding 2 pages, that describes the proposed collection in terms of the research problems addressed, the unity of proposed articles, the contribution and significance of the collection; a list of proposed authors, including the titles, abstracts (200 words max), region or national location of the research, and projected word size of each proposed article.
In Focus Issues are also initiated and coordinated by the JLACA editorial team.
JLACA is actively seeking proposals for In-Focus Issues that explore one or more of the JLACA Jubilee themes as elaborated in the Jubilee 25 year anniversary Call for Papers.
SLACA Awards & Keynotes
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology periodically publishes specially designated articles that are commissioned by the SLACA Board or the JLACA Editor in Chief. These include short commentaries on timely issues; keynote addresses or special presentations derived from AAA sessions organized by the SLACA Board or presented at the SLACA bi-annual conference; and articles receiving a prize that are competitively awarded by the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. The journal does not accept unsolicited manuscripts for this category of article.
Reviews
JLACA publishes critically engaged reviews of current scholarship in Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology that is expressed in an array of formats and media.
-
- Film Reviews are reviews of films released within the last five years.
- Museum Exhibit Reviews are reviews of openings within the last five years.
- Website Reviews of ethnographic websites.
- Conference Reviews of scholarly meetings held within the last two years.
- Cultural Productions or events that are especially significant for anthropological commentary.
- Book Reviews are reviews of books published within the last five years.
- Book Review Essays of two to three recent books linked by a common theme.
The journal does not accept unsolicited reviews.
Persons interested in writing a review for JLACA should contact the Reviews Editor by email.
JLACA especially welcomes proposals for reviews of websites, exhibits, research conferences, and other non-traditional forms of scholarship. As well, JLACA is interested to receive proposals for reviews of significant cultural productions that are worthy of anthropological commentary, discussion, and engagement.
As of March 21, 2019, JLACA uses ScholarOne platform for all invited reviews.
JLACA Reviews Editors
To Send Books/Films for JLACA Review
JLACA accepts books and film from authors and presses for review. Before sending to the Reviews Editor please make sure that the item is relevant to Latin American and Caribbean anthropology. Please review the JLACA mission ). Items sent to the Reviews Editor will not be returned. The Reviews Editor makes all determinations on the invitation of potential reviewers and the publication of submitted reviews. JLACA seeks to provide reviews of scholarly production that is based on “hands-off”/neutral perspective of reviewers in relation to the works and authors being reviewed.
Please send scholarly production to:
Beatriz Reyes-Foster
Reviews Editor, JLACA
c/o Department of Anthropology
University of Central Florida
Howard Phillips Hall Room 309
4000 Central Florida Blvd
Orlando, FL 32816-1361