About the Journal

Focus and Scope

JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy is an annual open-access and peer-reviewed journal of American Studies that publishes academic articles, book reviews, interviews, and creative writing, favoring innovative methodologies and contributions.

JAm It! is an inclusive hub of intellectual exchanges open to a wide range of critical approaches to the field of American Studies. The critical debates on JAm It! cover (but are not limited to) the fields of literature, cultural studies, history, linguistics, geography, political science, and pedagogy. We encourage trans-disciplinary and trans-hemispheric approaches and are especially eager to publish contributions that put in conversation European and non-European approaches to the study of North American culture, aesthetics, history, and politics.

Our thematic section is periodically open to submissions via CFPs and we accept unsolicited submissions for all the other sections of the journal. We especially invite submissions from Italian and international postgraduate and early-career researchers.

Through JAm It!, we aim to create a platform for an upcoming generation of scholars to engage with the editorial process, gain professional experience, and foster community within and across generational lines. Prospective guest editors for JAm It! thematic section are invited to contact the editorial team at journal@aisna-graduates.online. A proposal should include a title, a description of the general issues addressed by the section, a list of specific topics that can be indicative for authors who may wish to send a submission, and the name(s) and institution(s) of the coordinator(s). 

For our full peer review policy, please click here.

Sponsors

• AISNA - Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani
• AISNA Graduates
• Università di Torino

Journal History

JAm It! (Journal of American Studies in Italy) was first created by a group of PhD students in the fall of 2017, with the support of the Italian Association for North American Studies (AISNA). 

Among our concerns was a sense of comparative insulation, especially between early career and tenured scholars and among the fields represented within the organization (mainly literature and history) and those excluded from it. How could we get scholars investigating the American hemisphere through different disciplinary lenses to interact more, and more productively, with one another? How could we put in conversation the different disciplinary clusters operating within and without the association? How could we connect scholars across geographical and generational lines? How could we foster transnational scholarly cross-pollination? How could we overcome the alienation that afflicts early career academics and especially first-generation graduate students? It did not take us long to realize that an academic journal could both serve as the tangible manifestation of the exchanges occurring within the Graduate Forum and provide a medium to broaden the spatial and intellectual scope of the conversation taking place in the realm of American Studies in Italy.