Global Racism and International Publishing

George Floyd’s murder sparked protests globally as protesters connected the Black Lives Matter movement to racial oppression in their own contexts. As I am writing this in the final days of US evacuation from Afghanistan, I am concerned that Islamophobia will rear its ugly head in the future fight against the Taliban and the resettlement of Afghan refugees in the world.

I appreciate Judith Plaskow’s insightful, self-critical reflection on racism and Feminist Studies in Religion (FSR) and her tenacity to stay in dialogue even when the conversation became personal and painful. But she has left out the dimension of global racism and feminist publishing. Even as she points out that the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (JFSR) remains a largely white Christian enterprise, she fails to interrogate that it is a US-dominated white Christian enterprise.

As a former coeditor of JFSR (2000–2005), I want to reflect on the challenges of global racism in knowledge production and publishing. It would be myopic to reflect on racism and JFSR only from the US context. JFSR was founded in 1985, at a time when feminist and womanist religious scholarship gathered momentum globally. Asian feminist theology began in the late 1970s and the journal In God’s Image launched in 1982. The Womanist Approach to Religion and Society group at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) was formed in 1985. The AAR’s Native Traditions in the Americas group was formed in 1987.¹ In Africa and Latin America, feminist religious networks also began. For example, the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians was founded in 1989 and published numerous books. In Latin America, the ecofeminist theology and spirituality group Con-spirando was formed in 1991 and publishes a widely read journal.

JFSR supports and promotes international feminist religious scholarship. The editorial board has international scholars; an international board was formed to encourage foreign submissions and networking. As a premier feminist journal, JFSR appeals to international feminist scholars, some of whom would find it prestigious to publish in an American journal. So, why is it difficult to publish more articles by female scholars from the global South?

This issue was discussed in some of our editorial board meetings. People said international authors did not know the logistics of writing for an American journal. Reviewers of international submissions said the authors did not reference representative or latest works on the topic (their libraries may not have had these books). Some remarked that these submissions seemed more fit for the Living It Out or Roundtable sections. Even as we encourage board members to solicit international submissions, it would take much time for them to “coach” the authors to make their pieces publishable. This is doubly taxing for board members of color, who are already overstretched.

As a coeditor of the journal, I devoted much time to overseeing the editing and proofreading processes, as the journal did not have a paid staff. Instead, we relied on student help and volunteers. This was on top of my full-time job, with no course relief. The editorial team worked constantly under pressure. I worried about meeting the deadlines for each issue and did not have the luxury of thinking about long-term planning or expanding international networks. Thus, we cannot assume that if we have women of color as JFSR’s coeditors or serving on the editorial board, we will increase publications by women of color or women from the global South. The problems are more systemic.

As a feminist peer-reviewed journal, are we subscribing to the academic and publishing standards defined largely by the white academy? Do we understand feminist work if it is not done according to the protocols of research methods conceived and developed largely by white scholars? What is allowed as data using these methods and what is concealed? Are we using the master’s tools, only adding a feminist twist? What new feminist research methods in religion have we developed? Can women in the global South be theorists, and not merely providers of data or stories to be incorporated into the theories originating in the...