About Us

Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies

Imag­i­na­tions is a mul­ti­lin­gual, open-access jour­nal of inter­na­tion­al visu­al cul­tur­al stud­ies. It is pub­lished twice year­ly and is anony­mous­ly peer-reviewed. As a knowl­edge democ­ra­cy project, Imag­i­na­tions is free to sub­mit to and free to read. Found­ed at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alber­ta in 2010, the jour­nal is fund­ed by the fed­er­al grant­i­ng agency of the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil of Canada.

Imag­i­na­tions show­cas­es artis­tic work and schol­ar­ly research. It focus­es on inno­v­a­tive artis­tic prac­tices and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary, inter­cul­tur­al the­o­ret­i­cal under­stand­ings of images, screens and visu­al cul­ture. The jour­nal pro­vides an online instal­la­tion venue for orig­i­nal art­work and pub­lish­es aca­d­e­m­ic arti­cles in orig­i­nal lan­guages and trans­lat­ed into French or English.

Visu­al cul­ture prac­tices and schol­ar­ship come togeth­er in Imag­i­na­tions. Here, high-cal­iber, inter­na­tion­al and inter­cul­tur­al research informed by nation­al his­to­ries and lin­guis­tic tra­di­tions cre­ates a new vocab­u­lary to address the notion of the image and its many avatars. Researchers and visu­al artists, each reflect­ing on their own prac­tices, reveal­ing new insights into the inter­lac­ing of acad­e­mia and visu­al culture.

Elic­i­ta­tions is the journal’s reflec­tion and review sec­tion. It fea­tures work about visu­al cul­ture such as books, exhibits, film, social move­ments, and so on. Con­tri­bu­tions are accept­ed on a rolling basis. Start­ing Jan­u­ary 1, 2023, new con­tent will be pub­lished on the first of each month for two years.

Imaginations’ mission is to:

• Bridge com­mu­ni­ties of artis­tic visu­al prac­tice and aca­d­e­m­ic scholarship;
• Cre­ate a knowl­edge democ­ra­cy venue for the image;
• Dis­sem­i­nate high-qual­i­ty works of art and schol­ar­ship to a diverse read­ing publics; and
• Explore the ways in which visu­al cul­ture is transforming.

Imag­i­na­tions pub­lish­es schol­ar­ship that makes form part of its mes­sage, and our dig­i­tal plat­form makes this pos­si­ble. Imag­i­na­tions pub­lish­es schol­ar­ship that embeds images and video-clips in aca­d­e­m­ic arti­cles, con­nect­ing with the acces­si­bil­i­ty of cur­rent visu­al and tex­tu­al culture.

We encour­age con­trib­u­tors to sub­mit works that embed high-qual­i­ty media, and to make their work acces­si­ble to an aca­d­e­m­ic and gen­er­al read­ing public.

We wel­come sub­mis­sions from artists and writ­ers com­ing from acad­e­mia and oth­er com­mu­ni­ties of prac­tice: cura­tors, free­lancers, art and media jour­nal­ists, visu­al designers.

Hes­ter Baer | Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land, Unit­ed States
Mieke Bal | Roy­al Nether­lands Acad­e­my of Arts and Sci­ences, Netherlands
Andrew Burke | Uni­ver­si­ty of Win­nipeg, Canada
Ollivi­er Dyens | McGill Uni­ver­si­ty, Canada
Michèle Gar­neau | Uni­ver­sité de Mon­tréal, Canada
Wlad Godzich | Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San­ta Cruz, Unit­ed States
Kostas Gou­liamos | Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty Cyprus
Faye Ham­mill | Uni­ver­si­ty of Glas­gow, Scotland
Anton Kaes | Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Berke­ley, Unit­ed States

Issue 1-1 (Fall 2010): Found­ing Edi­tors | Fondateurs
Issue 2-1 (Fall 2011): Lau­rence Rick­els | Car­rie Smith
Issue 3-1 (Spring 2012): Daniel Laforest
Issue 3-2 (Fall 2012): Andrew Pen­dakis | Sheena Wilson
Issue 4-1 (Spring 2013): Ele­na Siemens | Andriko Lozowy
Issue 4-2 (Fall 2013): Oluyin­ka Esan | Car­rie Smith
and Sheena Wilson
Issue 5-1 (Spring 2014): Susan Ingram | Daniel Laforest
Issue 5-2 (Fall 2014): Maria Stehle | Car­rie Smith
Issue 6-1 (Spring 2015): Michèle Gar­neau | Daniel Laforest
Issue 6-2 (Fall 2015): Doris Ham­buch | Brent Ryan Bellamy
Issue 7-1 (Spring 2016): Andriko Lozowy and Kyler Zele­ny | Brent Ryan Bellamy
Issue 7-2 (Fall 2016): Nathalie Case­ma­jor and William Straw | Brent Ryan Bellamy