Illustration by: Hedy Tjin
Call for Abstracts
Edition #5 of the Amsterdam Museum Journal (AMJournal), titled Women and Cities, focuses women's relationships with urban environments (published open access in December 2025). Specifically, this edition explores the diverse ways in which women influence cities and, in turn, how cities shape their lives. We invite contributors to consider questions such as: How have women shaped the spaces we inhabit today? How do they influence the communities we are part of? How have they carved out their own spaces? How have they asserted themselves socially, politically, and economically? What does their work tell us about urban life? How can we retrieve the voices of unheard women? How have women engaged with the city artistically?
Suggested Themes: Art | Culture | Architecture | Heritage | Engineering | Technology | Economics| Entrepreneurship | Healthcare | Science | Governance | Environment | Flora and Fauna | Activism | Urban Geography | Communities | Subalternity | Sports | History | (De)coloniality.
This edition will be guest edited by: Margriet Schavemaker
Submission deadline: 27 April 2025, 23:59 CET
Contribution types
For Edition #5 “Women and Cities”, AMJournal calls on authors from all disciplines to submit abstracts for the following contributions:
The Essays
The essays are relevant to the current edition. Specifically, the essays provide a valuable contribution to the literature and polyphony that surrounds the theme. Authors should be explicit as to their own positionality, as well as the positionality of their contributions in the broader academic space and public discourse. As such, authors present a clear thesis statement in the text for which they offer sufficient reasoning. The argumentation in support of the thesis statement is embedded in existing academic literature. As such, essays should be well referenced and include a clear theoretical framework.
Short Essays are 2000-4000 words excl. abstract, key words, reference list, and endnotes
Long Essays are 4000-6000 words excl. abstract, key words, reference list, and endnotes
The Empirical Papers
The empirical papers present studies that are based on empirical analyses (e.g., data driven research, case studies, experiments). Authors present a defined research question or hypothesis that is relevant to the current journal edition, which they explore by means of analysis. The qualitative or quantitative research results are presented and discussed with demonstrative or illustrative examples selected from the data/corpus/cases studied. The article provides a clear theoretical framework and methodology for research and follows the standardized structure for research articles (introduction, theory, methodology, results/analysis, discussion, conclusion).
Empirical Papers are 2000-6000 words excl. abstract, key words, reference list, tables, figures, and endnotes
The Visual Essays
The visual essays consist of analyses of a series of images relevant to the issue’s theme. The visual essay should represent a critical academic reflection of the visuals, with a focus on what is presented or represented. The visuals can be a series, or a combination of multiple independent visuals sharing a common denominator. The visual essays should be well referenced, include a clear contextual framework and present an explicit thesis. The author is required to research the use of the desired visuals (copyright). The images should be high resolution; there are no strict guidelines concerning the number of images.
Visual Essays are 1000- 3000 words excl. abstract, key words, reference list, tables, figures, and endnotes
Want to contribute?
Submit an abstract of max. 400 words (excluding references and endnotes), as well as five key words. Please note that the abstract should be anonymized.
Submit a title page on which you mention:
- Your full name(s) and contact information,
- The discipline(s) in which you (and your co-authors) operate,
- The text’s full (working) title and a running title (five words max.),
- The type of contribution
- If you qualify for the Best Paper Prize.
The title page and the abstract as two separate documents.
Submission Deadline
Send your abstract and your title page to journal@amsterdammuseum.nl before the deadline on Sunday April 27th, 23:59.
Editorial Board
Edition Guest Editor
Margriet Schavemaker
AMJournal Editor-in-Chief
Emma van Bijnen
Internal Board of Editors
Judith van Gent; Vanessa Vroon-Najem; Norbert Middelkoop; Tom van der Molen
For each themed edition, in consultation with the advisory board, guest editors will be invited to be project lead, or complement the fixed members of the AMJournal editorial board.
External Board of Editors
The internal board of editor is supplemented by an extensive international external board of editors. Depending on the theme of an edition, a selection of the external board of editors will serve as guest editors and edition advisors. As the journal covers numerous disciplines, this external board is comprised of scholars from various academic fields and disciplines:
Pablo Ampuero Ruiz; Rowan Arundel; Sruti Bala; Markus Balkenhol; Ellinoor Bergvelt; Christian Bertram; Stephan Besser; Carolyn Birdsall; Cristobal Bonelli; Pepijn Brandon; Benedetta Bronzini; Petra Brouwer; Chiara de Cesari; Debbie Cole; Leonie Cornips; Annet Dekker; Christine Delhaye; Brian Doornenbal; David Duindam; Karwan Fatah-Black; Maaike Feitsma; Mark Fenemore; Wouter van Gent; Javier Gimeno Martinez; Sara Greco; Suzette van Haaren; Laura van Hasselt; Gian-Louis Hernandez; Pim Huijnen; Julian Isenia; Paul Knevel; Linda Kopitz; Gregor Langfeld; Mia Lerm-Hayes; Virginie Mamadouh; Julia Noordegraaf; Suleiman Osman; Marrigje Paijmans; Esther Peeren; Gertjan Plets; Menno Reijven; Jan Rock; Noa Roei; Bert van de Roemer; Aafje de Roest; Margriet Schavemaker; Britta Schilling; Steven Schouten; Gabriel Schwake; Dimitris Serafis; Fenna Smits; Tamara Soukotta; Irene Stengs; Eliza Steinbock; Colin Sterling; Sanjukta Sunderason; Rebecca Venema; Tim Verlaan; Janessa Vleghert; Jean Wagemans; Anna Weinreich; Daan Wesselman; Rixt Woudstra; meLê yamomo; Mia You; Emilio Zucchetti
Editorial support
Isabelle Vaverka (graphic design); Patrick de Bruin (graphic support); Sigi Samwel (visual editor); Imogen Mills (polylogue editor); Jari Lemmers (editorial support)
Want to know more?
Do you want to know more about this edition? Do you want to keep in touch with AMJournal? Do you want to be the first to receive new editions?
send us an email: journal@amsterdammuseum.nl