Published 09 December 2025 in News
H-Net.org
Call for Chapters: The End of Asking: Political Storyforms of 21st-Century Resistance (edited volume, Langaa RPCIG)
Edited By Dr. Hassan M. Yosimbom & Dr. Moshumee T. Dewoo
Submission Deadline: 15 January 2026
For much of the twentieth century, resistance was written in the grammar of petition, the future perfect of redemption. It addressed power directly and pedagogically: “Recognise us. Include us. Redeem the world you broke. Return to us the future we deserve.”
That grammar has collapsed.
Across continents and contexts, political expression has shifted. New political storyforms—forms of refusal, endurance, invention, and autonomous world-making—have emerged, where petition once stood.
We seek contributions that engage seriously with this shift and attend closely to the lived textures, languages, and imaginaries of these new formations.
Possible lines of inquiry include (but are not limited to):
- When and how did the petition die in a particular struggle? What replaced it?
- What happens to political language when “rights,” “democracy,” “justice,” or “transition” are experienced primarily as tools of governance rather than levers of emancipation?
- What new genres are invented when no one believes power will ever listen?
- In the same vein, when power does (pretend to) “listen”, what forms of refusal, betrayal, excess, or joyful illegibility do people invent to escape the trap of having been “heard”?
Submission Timeline
- Abstract (300–400 words) + short biographical statement (100–150 words): 15 January 2026
- Notification of acceptance: 15 March 2026
- Full chapter submission (8,000 words, excluding notes and references): 1 July 2026
- Final revised chapter: 1 November 2026
Style note: The volume will use MLA Handbook, 9th edition (2021) for formatting, citations, and references.
Submit proposals to both editors:
Editors:
Dr. Hassan M. Yosimbom Cameroonian academic, researcher, and literary scholar specialising in African literature and cultural studies, Cape Town.
Dr. Moshumee T. Dewoo African political historian specialising in feminist decolonial historiography of Global South resistance, Helsinki.
For more information please navigate to the Academic Announcements Open Call on the H-Announce website here