for contributors

culture critique, the online journal of the cultural studies program at CGU, situates culture as a terrain of political and economic struggle. The journal emphasizes the ideological dimension of cultural practices and politics, as well as their radical potential in subverting the mechanisms of power and money that colonize the life-world.

culture critique covers a range of domains, including feminist and queer studies, film and media studies, post-colonial studies, psychoanalysis, and science studies within the context of the Frankfurt and Birmingham schools, paying special attention to link cultural theory to cultural practices and activist politics.

culture critique welcomes submissions and inquiries from academics and graduate students. Please e-mail submissions and inquiries to henry.krips@cgu.edu.

We ask that articles abide in full with our style guide (see below). Submissions should be called surname_article, and be provided in word format. We ask that contributors send a short (250 word) abstract and a bio.

Our citation and editorial style generally follows the recommendations of The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Some necessary clarifications, as well as a few exceptions, are listed below.

A/an: The article a should be placed before words beginning with a consonant sound; an should be placed before words beginning with a vowel sound, including words that begin with a silent h.

   She attended a European university.
   The school awarded him an honorary degree.

Century: The century designation is spelled out and the entire term should be in lowercase type.

   Hank Morgan traveled back in time to the sixth century.
   The class was studying literature from the eighteenth century.

Dash: The em-dash – so named because it is the length of the letter m – is used to demarcate a parenthetical thought, or to denote that a speaker’s comment was interrupted. When used, place a single space before and after each em-dash. The en-dash – which is the length of the letter n – is used to connect numbers and occasionally words. In this use it signifies up to and including.

Directional words: Points of a compass – east, west, north, south – are presented in lowercase as long as they indicate direction or appear as an adjective before a geographic proper name. If the directional word is indicating a region of the world or county then it is capitalized.

Exclamation points: Use them very sparingly, if at all.

Foreign languages: Words or phrases in foreign languages that are likely to be unfamiliar to readers should be presented in italics.

Numbers: All single-digit numbers – as well as all numbers starting a sentence – are spelled out; the rest are listed as numerals. A partial list of possible exceptions includes large numbers (see Large numbers), percentages, as well as for consistency.

   I had two cups of coffee this morning.
   My younger brother is 12 years old.
   Fifteen students attended the conference.
   His three children – ages six, eight, and eleven – all attend public school.

Large numbers: To avoid unwieldy text, a combination of numerals and spelled-out numbers may be used to express large figures.

   The country has a population of 23 million.

Prefixes: In general, do not place a hyphen or dash between prefixes (co-, non-, pre-) and their object, even if this causes a double lettering. Exceptions are usually for words in which the hyphen is necessary for clarity of meaning (this is especially common with the re- prefix). For questions on individual words check Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

   Reelect
   Nonnative
   Police re-searched the area for additional clues.

Web site/website: Though “Web site” is still tentatively proscribed by The Chicago Manual of Style, we prefer the more common and less unwieldy “website.”

Years: Years should be written numerically, unless they begin a sentence.