Call for papers for the peer-reviewed socio-cultural journal "Czas Kultury":
"From Secondhand Testimonies to Commodifications of Death”

Although the roots of thanatotourism and “dark tourism” can be traced as far back as antiquity, in the era of mobility and democratized travel sites of memory have been subjected to ongoing commercialization. This phenomenon provokes a range of questions: How to develop sites of disasters and mass death to ensure a proper balance between respect for the victims, on the one hand, and the comfort of visitors and touristic potential, on the other? How should one approach visits to such places? Are death and memory eventually doomed to commodification? Can one act as a secondhand witness upon passing of the last survivors? Why the need for the admonishing “No Smoking” plates at Auschwitz-Birkenau? Why are present-day railbuses from Lublin to Bełżec casually announced as “Special Trains”? To what extent can thanatotourism act as a factor of identity? How is it related to sacralizing discourses, martyrological narratives, politics of memory, etc.?
We are seeking proposals of theoretical texts, comparative analyses, case studies, photo essays, etc., addressing the broadly defined thanatotourism and “dark tourism” since World War II.
Possible topics for exploration include, but are not limited to:
– the ethics of thanatotourism (educational and touristic excursions to sites of memory, development of tourist infrastructure, dress codes and savoir vivre at sites of memory, etc.);
– thanatotourism as a medium that shapes and galvanizes imagined communities (national, ethnic, religious, etc.)
– the specificity of dark tourism in Poland and abroad;
– the impact of (post)Christian and pilgrimage traditions on thanatotouristic formulas in Poland and abroad;
– sites of memory as thanatotouristic palimpsests, strategies of preservation of memory: from non-interference to hyperreal reconstruction (e.g. House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin, Museum – Memorial Site in Bełżec, Lorraine Motel in Memphis, 6th Floor Museum in Dallas, Warsaw Rising, etc.);
– the commodification of sites of memory and the development of tourism in locations potentially attractive to dark tourists (advertisement, infrastructure, souvenirs, etc.).
Please send completed papers of up to 5,000 words to kuligowski@czaskultury.pl by September 15, 2017. Preliminary inquiries should be sent to the same address.

For more instructions for authors, see http://czaskultury.pl/en/for-authors/


About the "Czas Kultury" journal:

„Czas Kultury” is a solid socio-cultural journal which aims to cover the most valuable and interesting aspects of arts, culture and current social affairs. „Czas Kultury” takes a variety of research perspectives such as cultural studies, literary studies, philosophical, ethnological or sociological. Each issue has a major thematic section, for example, „Bio[in]perfection”, „[Anti]motherhood”, „Demons of science”, consisting of scientific articles, each of them is subject to the reviewing procedure. Majority of the authors constituting the thematic sections have academic degrees, and all the members of the editorial staff are reputable and recognized scholars in their fields of science. In addition to articles devoted to specific topics, journal also publishes essays, prose and poetry, press review, feuilletons and discussions about current problems of culture.
The journal has been evaluated by The Ministry of Science and Higher Education and it has passed the verification successfully. „Czas Kultury” is included on the list of scientific journals to the assessment of 12 points. Quarterly cooperates also with databases of journals, among others, The Central and Eastern European Online Library in which are located the last 10 vintages „Czas Kultury”.


“Czas Kultury” reviewing practices:

reviewers for “Czas Kultury” journal are individuals from outside the institution with which the editor-in-chief is affiliated;
at least two independent reviewers from outside that institution are asked to evaluate each article or text published in the magazine;
when dealing with texts written in a foreign language (a language other than Polish), at least one of the reviewers is affiliated with a foreign (non-Polish) academic center;
our reviewing practices involve a double-blind review process: authors and reviewers are not aware of each other’s identity;
each reviewer must sign a declaration of the absence of any conflict of interest; conflicts of interest are constituted by the following relationships between reviewer and author:
– direct personal relationships (kinship, legal association, conflict),
– relationships of professional subordination,
– direct scholarly collaboration within the two years previous to the review’s preparation.
Reviews are completed in writing and end with an unambiguous verdict in favor of either publishing or rejecting the article. The principles on which articles are accepted or rejected are published on the magazine’s home page.
The names of reviewers for each issue of the magazine are not revealed; once a year, the magazine presents a list of its collaborating reviewers to the public.
The primary version of “Czas Kultury” journal is its printed version in Polish language, selected articles are published in English in the electronic version.