Modern Western epistemologies have long privileged the mind over the body, sight over touch, taste and smell, and cognition over feeling. This sensory hierarchy—rooted in Ancient Greek philosophy—casts so-called "lower" senses like smell, taste, and touch as primitive or bodily, often racializing and devaluing non-Western knowledge systems. Scholars such as Constance Classen, David Howes, and David Sutton have shown how modernity’s focus on abstraction and textualism displaced embodied, sensory, and experiential forms of knowing. This privileging of intellect over sensory experience has resulted in the marginalization of entire disciplines and methodologies in the social sciences and humanities (e.g. sound and tactile studies, embodied memory, experiential learning, sensory ethnographies…). 

In recent decades, a turn toward embodied knowledge and material experience has begun to reshape scholarship. Following the rise of sensory anthropology and interdisciplinary interest in affect, performance, and material culture, researchers have increasingly asked: How do the senses shape meaning? How is knowledge produced through the body? What happens when we take touch, taste, smell, or spatial experience seriously as objects and methods of study?

This issue of Brújula, “Materiality and the Senses: Embodied Knowledge and Experiential Methods in the Hispanic World,” seeks contributions that engage with these questions through the cultural practices, products, and processes of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. We will feature submissions from across the humanities and social sciences that address the role of the senses, embodiment, and materiality, either as a subject of analysis or a methodological lens. We welcome proposals that explore questions such as: How do literary and artistic works from Latin America and Iberia represent sensory experience or engage the body as a site of knowledge? In what ways do cultural products (literature, film, performance, visual art) from these regions resist or reimagine dominant Western sensory hierarchies? How is sensory memory invoked in narratives of displacement, migration, or political violence? How are the senses used in literature and cultural production as carriers of memory, identity, or resistance? 

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Sensory ethnographies and fieldwork

• Taste, smell, and embodied memory

• Foodways and culinary practices

• Tactile media and material texts

• Performance, ritual, and affect

• Soundscapes and sonic environments

• Body knowledge in dance, labor, or ritual

• Sensory histories and archives

• Multimodal, practice-based, or experiential methods

We invite scholars from anthropology, literature, history, sociology, cultural studies, art history, education, pedagogy, archaeology, and related disciplines to submit proposals that explore how materiality and the senses challenge the boundaries of academic knowledge.

Types of submissions accepted:

• Academic Articles (15–20 pages)
  Original and unpublished articles presenting rigorous academic research related to the theme of the issue are accepted. Texts must include clear argumentation, a defined theoretical framework, and engagement with relevant primary and secondary sources.
• Historiographical Analyses (15–20 pages)
  This section is dedicated to studies that critically analyze the evolution of a thematic field, author, period, or issue within the historiography of the Hispanic world. A deep reflection is expected on methodological approaches, theoretical currents, and academic debates that have shaped the production of knowledge on the topic.
• Pedagogical Interventions (10–15 pages)
  We invite teachers and researchers to share innovative pedagogical experiences related to the teaching of languages, literature, history, or Hispanic culture. These contributions may include case studies, critical reflections on methodologies, or sensory approaches and classroom materials.
• Short Academic Articles (6–10 pages)
  This category is intended for more concise, yet equally rigorous, theoretical reflections or case analyses. These may include research advances, critical notes on specific materials, or methodological proposals focused on themes related to materiality, the senses, or embodied knowledge.
• Interviews (6–10 pages)
  Interviews with scholars, artists, writers, or activists whose work engages with the issue's themes are welcome. Interviews should include a brief introduction that contextualizes the interviewee and explains their relevance to Hispanic studies.
• Book Reviews (3–4 pages)
  Critical reviews of recent books (published within the last three years) that contribute to the debate on materiality, the senses, or experiential methodologies in Hispanic contexts are accepted. Reviews will be evaluated based on their ability to situate the work within the academic landscape and to discuss its contributions, limitations, and potential uses.
• Creative Texts
  This section includes poetry, short fiction, personal essays, chronicles, or experimental hybrids that creatively and reflectively explore the relationship between body, perception, memory, and materiality. Submissions should be accompanied by an author’s note (up to 1 page) that situates the text in relation to the issue’s theme.
• Visual Art
  We welcome proposals in photography, illustration, collage, installation, performance, or other visual formats that engage with sensory experience, materiality, and the body in Hispanic contexts. Submissions must be in high resolution (300 dpi, in .pdf or .jpg format) and include a short description or reflection (300–500 words) on the concept and creative process.

Submissions: 

1. Send your manuscript accompanied by a bibliography that includes a short professional note (with your name, academic affiliation, and title (postgraduate student, doctor, assistant professor, professor, etc.), institution, research interests, and/or any relevant publications), the title of your article, and an abstract of 200 words. If submitting visual art, email the documents mentioned above.
2. Brújula is a peer-reviewed journal that favors anonymity in the selection process. To keep your application anonymous during the selection process, the manuscripts should be presented without names. The names and email addresses should appear only in the bibliography.
3. Only manuscripts in Spanish, English, or Portuguese will be accepted. Submissions must be double spaced, including final notes and bibliography.
4. The essay norms should be those of the latest edition of MLA Style Manual and Guide for Scholarly Publishing.
5. Keep in contact with the editors for the essay norms regarding utilization of graphics, diagrams, maps, photos, and artistic illustrations. The author will be responsible for the corresponding authorizations for the reproduction of these materials.
6. Brújula will only accept original contributions. Translation of articles or articles already published will not be accepted.
7. Manuscripts will not be returned. 

Send your manuscript to brujula@ucdavis.edu ​
before September 15, 2025