Call for Submissions

Aesthesis: The Politics and Praxes of Un/bordering

Deadline: January 15, 2026

What does a border do, and how do people un/do it? The 8th issue of New Sociology centers around this question, examining borders, not only as lines or prisons but as social relations, practices, and sensations: thresholds where movement is routed/rooted, slowed, or made possible. We read “aesthetics” as aesthesis—the sensing and sense-making through which worlds are built and policed: the forms, sounds, interfaces, rituals, and design choices that states, markets, and communities use to govern passage and organize care.

We invite submissions that show, explore, and examine how borders are made, felt, and seen—and how people make, feel, and see otherwise; beyond border lines. Alongside detention, checkpoints, and sanctions, we attend to vernacular architectures of refuge and repair; sonic and visual cues that choreograph belonging; and everyday arts that refuse capture. Contributors might trace migration’s passages and pauses; colonial and neocolonial corridors of extraction; race as a moving checkpoint; carceral infrastructures and counter-logistics; or un/mapping, opacity, and data refusal as survival—including the “UI of sovereignty and solidarity” (visa portals, e-gates, status trackers, denial letters, intake forms, mutual-aid dashboards) and algorithmic management of mobility and work.

New Sociology seeks creative and experimental pieces in the form of poetry and visual art, and prioritizes community-grounded collaborations among scholars, organizers, artists, technologists, archivists, and folx with lived/living experience of bordering. Bring us theory in practice, counter-archives, and freedom dreams that exceed criminalization and enclosure. We’re excited to read and view your unbordered visions in any of the following formats:

1. Photography (Max. 10 pieces/pages)
2. Digital Art Work (Max. 10 pieces/pages)
3. Physical Visual Artwork (photos of paintings, drawings, or sculptures) (max. 5-10)
4. Film Stills with Short Captions (max. 5 pages, max. 50 words per caption). 
5. Critical/Decolonial Maps (max. 3 maps per submission)
6. Comics or Graphics (Max. 5 pages or 5 strips/graphics)
7. Poems or Poetry Collections (max. 3 pages per poem or 10 pages per collection)
8. Lyrics or sheet music (Max. 3 pages per submission)
9. Photographic or visual essays (Max. 1000 words–if relevant, including references)
10. Screenshots/photos of (as is) diary entries, emails, texts, DMs, or doodles (max. 5)
11. Other alternative visual media that you would like to suggest to us (please email us)

If your submission includes other people by name, you must get their written consent to submit. We are open to submissions from all emergent scholars, activists, and creatives, but prioritize non-white authors, as well as those who are queer, trans, disabled/neurodivergent and woman-identified. All submissions must be submitted with a 150–250 word abstract and at least three keywords to our online portal (here) by January 16, 2026.

If you require further guidance around how to submit, or just have questions about the journal/issue, please email our lead special editor Michelle Molubi-Johnson at mmolubi@yorku.ca or our EIC at jade.dacosta@usask.ca-there are no wrong questions!

In solidarity,

Michelle Molubi-Johnson (Lead Special Editor), Jellisa Ricketts, Jarrod Williams, and Prilly Bicknell-Hersco (Chief Deputy Editors), with Mentoring Editors Naiomi Perera and Dr. Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa