Call for Papers: Community Organizing Journal

Posted by Community Organizing Journal on March 31, 2026

Community Organizing Journal (COJ) is a new journal dedicated to advancing the scholarship and practice of community organizing around the globe. COJ reflects the core commitments of community organizing at all levels. We focus on the importance of democratic and relational work that enables leadership development, community power, and structural change. Community organizing exists in many contexts around the world and takes on a variety of forms. COJ therefore prioritizes careful reflection and critical analysis, grounded in a range of traditions and approaches.

We invite submissions exploring the many ways that higher education and community organizing intersect at this moment of significant political, social, and institutional upheaval. Across national contexts, colleges and universities are facing mounting pressures: political attacks on academic freedom and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work, demands to justify their civic and economic contributions, and challenges to their role as institutions serving the common good. At the same time, these pressures create new opportunities for partnerships, organizing strategies, and forms of democratic engagement.

This themed issue (Higher Education and Community Organizing: Defending, Reimagining, and transforming Universities) seeks contributions that critically examine how community organizing is being used to defend, re-envision, and transform higher education—and how colleges and universities, in turn, can contribute to broader struggles for social justice.

Learn more.