California Italian Studies (CIS) is a digital, peer-reviewed scholarly journal committed to publishing the finest, the most innovative, and the most potentially influential scholarly work being done in the field of Italian Studies today. CIS is the expression of the California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS) and is financed by the following institutions of higher education: Cal State Long Beach, Chapman, Scripps, USC, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UC San Diego.
CIS seeks contributions that meet one or more of the following criteria: interdisciplinarity; comparativity; criticality. Submissions should be of interest to a broad spectrum of scholars in and outside of Italian Studies. Contributions that make the best and most creative use of the journal's digital format will be especially encouraged.
By interdisciplinarity we mean work that combines within itself the practices of multiple disciplines, makes significant use of the tools of one discipline in the service of another, or relates to a cluster of other scholarly works, representing the approaches of multiple disciplines to a single topic. Relevant disciplines: medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary studies, visual studies, history of art and architecture, cultural and political geography, environmental studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science, musicology, literary studies, film, media and new media studies, theater and performance studies, gender studies, political science, anthropology, sociology, migration and diaspora studies, classical studies, rhetoric, linguistics, ethnography and popular culture studies, and any other cross-disciplinary and comparative field of inquiry.
By comparativity we mean placing the study of the history, culture, society, artistic products, and languages of the Italian peninsula and islands, and of Italian diasporas, in relation to other geographical, cultural, and linguistic formations—for instance in the areas of Mediterranean and European studies; the study of migration to and from Italy and of regional and dialect cultures; as well as colonial, post-colonial and transnational studies.
By criticality we mean work that not only studies a given object but also engages in theoretical and/or methodological reflection on its own approach and on its implications within larger disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts.
