DDGC Blog Submission Guidelines

The DDGC Blog is envisioned as a community resource.

We want to provide those whose work aligns with the DDGC Collective Guiding Principles a forum to share their concerns, research, calls for action, and other types of writing that in some capacity relates to the broad interfield of German Studies.

The DDGC Blog editorial collective is eager to work with you. We welcome pitches for articles, solicit targeted contributions, and also accept already drafted manuscripts for consideration to be published on the blog. 

We treat each project as unique. This means that we are glad to chat with potential authors about what they need in order to see their project through to publication. This sometimes means that authors have an idea for a blog but require a bit of support conceptualizing the text as a whole. At other times it means having a fully realized draft that requires a bit of guidance from experts in the field. At other times authors have an idea they would like to pursue with a collaborator but do not know who that collaborator could be. We aim to be available to address these and other authorial needs as they come up.

In order to be as functional as possible for different types of contributors, we are glad to discuss different formats for blog entries. Past published submissions have typically ranged from 500-2000 words. However, some ideas cannot be standardized and require less or more textual space to be articulated. We would very much like to work with authors or author collectives and to give you the space you require to develop your ideas. This includes multimedia projects, anonymous submissions, or other types of formats that best serve your project’s needs. 

Creative Commons Licence
All work published on the DDGC Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Pitch & Submission Guide

  • These don’t have to take a specific form. They can begin with a text message, a DM on social media, an email with one of the editorial collective members, or an email addressed to all of us. In short, reach out and we are glad to chat.

  • The length of the submission depends on the nature of the project. In the past, we have published projects that range from 500 to 2000 words. You might have a shorter or longer project. Reach out and we are glad to chat with you about what range would best serve your project.

    Entries follow MLA citation system with a works cited list at the end of the document. Submissions saved as a word document and emailed to the editorial collective are much appreciated. We use a standard image to accompany each blog post; however, if you would like to use your own visuals, please send them along and make sure they are cleared for public domain usage.

    We are as excited about individual contributions as we are about collaborative contributions. We welcome anonymous posts as well. We especially hope to amplify the research and perspectives of graduate students, contingent faculty, and faculty at any stage of their career who belong to a historically and structurally marginalized community in the academy.

    A longstanding series is the "Why do ____ German Studies Matter Now?" series. Contributors in this series have offered critical insights about the relevance of, for instance, Black German Studies, Queer German Studies, or 18th-Century Studies for our current moment and the futures unfolding ahead of us. If you would like to pursue a project in this series, please reach out. Don’t be discouraged if a scholar already wrote on the topic you are considering pursuing. We are hoping to get as many people involved in articulating their ideas about a given matter as possible. And we encourage responses to individual blogs.

  • Each submission will undergo a review process by the editorial collective. In some cases where the expertise of the collective might not suffice for a topic the submission might be sent to a DDGC Collective member whose scholarship is firmly aligned with the project. We do not conduct anonymous reviews. Our aim is community building and personal and scholarly exchange. The anonymous review process feels antithetical to the aims of the blog.

  • Send submissions, pitches, and general inquiries to any one of the editorial collective members. Your inquiry will be discussed by the collective and we will determine the best approach to realize your publication project.

    Regine Criser (rcriser[at]unca.edu)

    Natasza Gawlick (natasza[at]live.unc.edu)

    Ervin Malakaj (ervin.malakaj[at]ubc.ca)

    Catherine McNally (cemcnally[at]mtholyoke.edu)