Pasados Special Issue: Against the Past/Contra Pasados
Co-edited by Jesse Alemán (University of New Mexico) and Evelyn Soto (Rutgers University—New Brunswick)
Deadline: January 15, 2026
This special issue of Pasados invites critical interventions anchored in recovered, pre-1980s US Latinx literary and expressive forms of cultural production that confront the past; challenge the presentism of US Latinx Studies; and speculate on the future of the sustainability of recovery research in an era of digitized content, restrictive budgets, and disciplinary shifts that lean toward contemporary identity formations and their present-day politics.
“Against the Past/Contra Pasados” invokes “against/contra” as prepositions that signal opposition to something but also in anticipation of something (as in to bet against the odds/contra las probabilidades); protection from something (as in to shelter against the wind/contra el viento); or contact with something (as in to butt up against the wall/contra la pared). “Against/contra” announces contrast from something but also relation to something; it is a form of resistance as well as a state of reference. As a state of reference, “against” enables ideas of counterbalance and possibilities of exchange (to set against the scale/contra peso); it also gives direction to movements, both critical and political (to be against the current/contra la corriente). To be “against the past” does not only mean to be opposed to it—it can also mean to be supported by it and to hedge in anticipation for what it might bring. “Contra Pasados” adds to the nuance by signaling Pasados itself as a journal that invites or warrants such resistance, opposition, or speculation.
It’s in all these ways that this special issue invites scholarly articles (6,000-8,000 words, including reference matter), pedagogical pieces (2,000 words), or archival reflections (2,000 words) in English or Spanish that analyze how recovered materials invoke the past as a mode critique, reassert the history of coloniality, or imagine alternative futures of Latinidad. We also seek pieces that situate, theorize, or critique current trends in US Latinx Studies against the past.
Authors must submit materials via Scholastica by January 15, 2026, and follow the journal’s guidelines for manuscript preparation. Inquiries may be sent to the co-editors:
Dr. Jesse Alemán Dr. Evelyn Soto
Professor of English and Presidential Teaching Fellow Assistant Professor
Department of English Department of English
University of New Mexico Rutgers University—New Brunswick
jman@unm.edu es632@english.rutgers.edu