*** REFUSE is the in-house journal of Incite Seminars. Although the journal is open and free to the public, submission is currently available for members only. If you would like to become involved in our experiment in rigorous & rebellions learning and take advantage of this opportunity to share your work, please visit the join options at our member site.

We accept and publish contributions on a rolling basis. Accepted submissions will be shared on our open-access site. Send original work with REFUSE SUBMISSION in the subject heading to inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com.

REFUSE: A Journal of Iconoclasms (ISSN 2767-1194) embraces the multidimensional and ambiguous meaning of the term “refuse.” To refuse is to be unwilling to do or perform that which one considers unacceptable. Refuse is matter that has been thrown away, deemed worthless. To re(-)fuse is to bond together that which has been broken; to repair. 

Iconoclasm is the intentional destruction of traditional cultural images, monuments, and doctrines. Places from which the force of authority and discipline emanates are, from the perspective of iconoclasts, the ruins of tradition. In our refusal of the dominant, default and disciplinary, we reclaim and celebrate cultural productions and forms of knowing that have been trashed and neglected, and in doing so repair the severed connections in our collective mycelium, fertilizing possibilities for new life in the ruins.  

We welcome writers, artists, and scholars of all stripes (independent, affiliated, contingent, recovering, fringe) to join us in creating a platform for full-bodied and unapologetic refusal of societal bunk.  

The editorial team of REFUSE invites ongoing submissions on the themes of refusal, refuse, and repair. We welcome submissions of writings, two-dimensional artworks such as (but not limited to): 

• • Manifestos, provocations, subversions 
  • Enlivened re-animations/reminders of rebellious thinkers and ideas
  • Poetry
  • Short Fiction
  • Diary entries
  • Unpublishable memos
  • Leaked institutional documents
  • Uncompleted To-Do Lists 
  • Junk theory
  • Trash theory
  • Real and imaginary interviews
  • Responses to/collages of rejection letters 
  • Banishing and protective rituals/spells
  • Photos of protests, graffiti, property destruction
  • Fashion statements 
  • Memes
  • Jokes & riddles
  • Music
  • Music-image-video
  • Spoken word
  • Photography
  • Photographic essays
  • Scholarship
  • Interviews (spoken or written)
  • Etymologies
  • Commentaries
  • Schizo-fragments
  • Journal entries real or fictional
  • Screeds, manifestos, arguments
  • Theses

SUPPORT

REFUSE Journal was originally conceived and edited by Natalia Smirnov & Davood Gozli. It is now created through the volunteer efforts of editors and contributors. To help sustain this project, become an Incite Seminars member.

Technicalities

We are an independent, not-for-profit, public benefit, 501(c)(3) educational entity.

As this indicates, we are aligned with the Open Access and Creative Commons movements. This means that readers have free access to all of our materials. We publish under the attribution CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International):

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to ‘copyleft’ free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.

Here is the full license agreement. Here is a readable summary. Authors hold copyright to their works. Previously established copyright attribution applies to reprinted articles.

Thank you for your interest!