MERIP is seeking pitches for our Summer 2026 issue exploring visual art and cultural production in the Middle East and North Africa. We invite submissions that center artistic practices and cultural histories while attending to the political, social and material conditions in which art is made and experienced. We welcome a range of perspectives and forms, including analytical articles, dispatches, review essays, interviews and visual essays. 

Editors are looking for pieces that dig beneath the surface of cultural production to ask questions about its material conditions, its circulation and the political possibilities it enables or expresses. Investigations of visual art, photography, film, music, museums, monuments and architecture and other artistic forms such as folk art, protest art and crafts are all welcome. Pieces might explore the production of art by foregrounding its material politics and economic pathways inside and outside official channels; historical, decolonial, feminist, and socially grounded approaches to artistic practice and circulation; the artistic and aesthetic impulse that genocidal times warrant, notably in relation to Gaza; the changing aesthetics of established cultural productions in tandem with political, social and technological shifts, including AI and open-access content; networks of circulation connecting local and regional dynamics with global consumption and transnational solidarity; grassroots initiatives, independent collectives and avant-garde movements; state-led projects and investments, and many more directions we haven’t thought of.

MERIP’s mandate is to provide critical, alternative and accessible reporting and analysis. To this end, we welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels. Our editorial team will work closely with you throughout the process to offer editorial guidance, feedback and support. 

To pitch an idea, please send a brief description (1 paragraph) and short biography to cfp@merip.org.

Deadline for pitches: February 23, 2026.

Note: the deadline for submissions will be May 1. Typically, pieces are between 1,000–3,000 words and go through a review process and several rounds of editing. You can read more about MERIP style here.

We look forward to reading your ideas!