Guidelines and Timeline

Submission Guidelines

Submission is open to any untenured professor in any country of origin. Submissions should be in the form of a book manuscript or manuscript of linked essays, written in English and focusing on the general topic of the global African-American Diaspora; there is no page or word limit. The open call for submissions begins on June 1, 2009, and winners will be notified by May 15 of the following year. Please read the timeline below for a more detailed account and specific submission instructions.

Proposed Timeline, 2009

June 1 - 30: Open call for submissions. Candidates should email their prospectus and book outline to ici@vanderbilt.edu. Based on the preliminary submissions, the Executive Director will invite candidates to submit full manuscripts to the competition.
July 15: Candidates notified if they are invited to submit a full manuscript.
Aug. 1: Deadline for receipt of paper copies. Notified candidates must submit three paper copies of their manuscript for peer review. Please send them to:

Issues in Critical Investigation
Vanderbilt University
Station B #351654
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, Tennessee, 37235

Aug. 1 - 15: Manuscripts sent out for peer review. Each manuscript is mailed to two members of the Board of Reviewers (BR) with expertise in the given field. Reviews are composed of a narrative judgement along with a rubric for weighing predetermined criteria.
Nov. 15: Deadline for BR members to return reviews.
Nov. 16 - Dec. 1: Executive Director Hortense Spillers decides, based on recommendations from the Board of Reviewers, which manuscripts will be sent to the Executive Council (EC).
Dec. 1 - 15: EC members receive three or four manuscripts each, along with previous reviews from the Board of Reviewers.
March 15: Deadline for the seven members of EC to pick one top recommendation each.
April: Executive Director Hortense Spillers reviews the top seven manuscripts and decides on the two winners.
May 15: Winners of the Anna Julia Cooper prize in the Humanities and the Ida B. Wells prize in the Social Sciences announced.
October (first weekend): Fall conference to include a late Friday afternoon keynote address followed by a banquet and awards ceremony, Saturday plenaries and presentations from winning authors and honorable mentions, and a closing reception.