A Journal of Black Film, Television & New Media Culture

In recent years, the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, Critical Race Studies, Whiteness Studies, and Womanist Studies have become integral parts of contemporary academic approaches to more established critical theory paradigms (i.e., Feminist Theory, Structuralism, Post Structuralism, Deconstruction, Post-Colonial Theory, etc.). As a result, there has been a proliferation of interest in and production of scholarly discourses on blackness as it intersects with film, television and now new media forms of cultural production. Screening Noir is a new journal that has been launched as a dedicated forum for interrogating new representational economies and discursive mappings of blackness across a wide range of screen cultures. This includes, but is not limited to, analyses, theories, critiques and creative treatments addressing blackness as it appears in film, TV, Internet, video and computer game texts. Screening Noir is interested in publishing new research, scholarship, creative artworks and other manners of engagement with visual media productions concerning both historic and contemporary experiences of blackness. In the wake of historic and groundbreaking studies in film and TV criticism that centered primarily on positive and negative image representations of blackness, new critical and theoretical formations have evolved with even broader ranges of inquiry around screen media. To this end, Screening Noir welcomes manuscripts that situate blackness and screen culture in the context of the following:

About Screening Noir

Screening Noir is a publication of the African, African American Caucus of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), in cooperation with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Department of Film Studies and the UCSB Center for Black Studies. Founded initially in 1994 as the Caucus newsletter, Screening Noir has now been transformed into a refereed journal with the expressed goal of tapping into the breadth of discourse production centering on moving image and other visual media as they pertain to global black issues. The editors are open to various writing approaches and methodologies as well as diverse topics. There is no black monolith where ideas, philosophies and perspectives on visual media are concerned. It is precisely the heterogeneity of African diasporic voices and experiences that we strive to reflect. The Screening Noir editors invite your contributions to this forum designed for expanding and advancing work on black media issues for the 21st century. Increasingly, powerful multinational media conglomerates persist in racialized mediations that often direct and attempt to define blackness for our society and for the globe, and most problematically in their own images. Screening Noir represents an alternative public space for redefinitions and renegotiations of blackness in the contemporary mediascape. The editors encourage you to write for Screening Noir.

Manuscript Submission and Guidelines

Screening Noir is peer-reviewed and is published biannually by the University of California, Santa Barbara Center for Black Studies. Membership in the African, African American Caucus of SCMS is not a prerequisite for manuscript submission or publication, but authors published by the journal are encouraged to join SCMS and the Caucus, and become subscribing members of the journal.
Screening Noir practices a blind-review and anonymous editorial process. Authors should submit three double-spaced copies of each manuscript along with a computer disc copy in Microsoft Word. All self-citations should be removed from manuscripts. Papers should not exceed 30 pages, including notes, tables, and references.

Previously published work or work currently under consideration elsewhere will not be considered. Include with manuscripts a cover page stating author(s), institutional affiliation(s), a telephone and fax number, and an email address. Screening Noir follows the guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition. Manuscripts and discs will not be returned.
Send Submissions To:

Screening Noir
Center for Black Studies
4603 South Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA  93106-3140

Email submissions are strongly encouraged and can be sent to: snj@cbs.ucsb.edu