Critical Ethnic Studies provides a space for unique and insurgent critique among academic and activist intellectuals within ethnic studies. It invites interdisciplinary works that reposition the guiding assumptions of other fields, and engage the new methodologies, philosophies, and propositions of this emerging intellectual formation. It recognizes that distinct fields have been collapsed in the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in universities, and presses back against equivocations which domesticate critique and action. 

The Journal encourages and enacts several related, multilayered lines of inquiry. First, this journal questions the nation state model, paying attention to the present manifestations of colonialism, extra-national effects of globalization and privatization, as well as structural redevelopment programs on Indigenous people and people of color.

Second, this journal appraises the productive tensions between fields that have institutionalized together under the umbrella of Ethnic Studies. Particularly, Indigenous Studies has attended to ongoing settler colonialism and ongoing Indigenous resistance to occupation and erasure, whereas Ethnic Studies has often been vexed by the ways in which discussions of race, civil rights, immigration, labor exploitation, and inclusion may ignore settler colonialism.

Third, by explicitly foregrounding white supremacy as a logic and social formation intimately abetted by race and racism, the journal provide trenchant critiques of how and why race, racism, and antiblackness persist and not merely state or describe their persistence. 

Fourth, the journal reflects intersectional, feminist and queer analyses that treats categories such as race, class, gender, and sexuality not as additive modes of identity, oppression, or discrimination--but rather as constitutive, as robust analytics for critically apprehending and theorizing alternative

refer to Archive for past issues

About the Journal

Change achieved through struggle, organizing, and creating the alternatives produces profoundly different outcomes than change achieved through recognition-focused protest, and pressuring the state to make changes for us. That is a recipe for co-option.

~Leanna Betasamosake Simpson,
"Indigenous Resurgence and Co-resistance"

Editorial

  • (2024–present)
    Neel Ahuja, University of Maryland
    Iyko Day, Mount Holyoke College
    Rana Jaleel, University of California, Davis

    (2019-2022)
    Christine Hong and Neda Atanasoski

    (2015-2019)
    Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang

  • Neel Ahuja University of Maryland
    Iyko Day Mount Holyoke College
    Alyosha Goldstein University of New Mexico
    Julietta Hua University of California, Davis
    Rana Jaleel University of California, Davis

  • Tippaswinee Mitra, University of Maryland

    Past Managing Editors
    Danielle LaPlace (2023–2024)
    Jane Komori (2021–2023)
    Trung PQ Nguyen (2020–2021)
    Kara Hisatake (2019–2020)
    Nisha Toomey (2018–2019)
    LeKeisha Hughes (2015–2018)
    Sam Spady (2015–2016)

  • Nasser Abourahme, Bowdoin College
    Neel Ahuja, University of Maryland, College Park
    Neda Atanasoski, University of Maryland, College Park
    Timothy August, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    Crystal Mun-hye Baik, University of California, Riverside
    Nerissa S. Balce, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    Jodi A. Byrd, Cornell University
    Jih-Fei Cheng, Scripps College
    Glen Sean Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene First Nation), University of British Columbia
    Denise Ferreira da Silva, New York University
    Iyko Day, Mount Holyoke College
    Josen Masangkay Diaz, University of San Diego
    Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama
    Kale B. Fajardo, University of Minnesota
    Candace Fujikane, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
    Alyosha Goldstein, University of New Mexico
    Macarena Gómez-Barris, Brown University
    Hiʻilei Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, Yale University
    Emily L. Hue, University of California, Riverside
    Bianca Kai Isaki, KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance
    Kyle Kajihiro, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa; DMZ Hawai'i; American Friends Service Committee
    Manu Karuka, Barnard College
    Jennifer Kelly, University of California, Santa Cruz
    Joo Ok Kim, University of California, San Diego
    Sandra Kim, Stony Brook University
    Marisol LeBrón, University of California, Santa Cruz
    Ghassan Moussawi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Anjali Nath, University of Toronto
    Mimi Thi Nguyen, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Jessica Bissett Perea, University of Washington
    Joseph M. Pierce, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    Chandan Reddy, University of Washington
    Juana María Rodríguez, University of California, Berkeley
    Jeffrey Santa Ana, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    Dean Itsuji Saranillio, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
    Evren Savci, Yale University
    Lila Sharif, Arizona State University
    Davorn Sisavath, California State University, Fullerton
    Hortense J. Spillers, Vanderbilt University
    Símon Ventura Trujillo, New York University