Award-winning journal moves to Tulane for its next chapter

The Tulane Global Humanities Center (TGHC), housed within the Tulane University School of Liberal Arts, has been chosen as the new institutional home of Public Culture, one of the world's most respected peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences.

Public Culture has shaped scholarly and public debate on the social and political impacts of globalization for more than 35 years, publishing some of the most influential work on transnational culture, media, urbanism, social movements and the intersection of politics and public life.

The journal was founded at the University of Pennsylvania by anthropologists Arjun Appadurai and the late Carol Breckenridge, whose editorial leadership helped establish Public Culture's international reputation. The journal was long associated with the University of Chicago and was based at New York University before moving to Tulane this summer.

The move marks an important milestone for the Tulane Global Humanities Center, which was established in 2025 to connect scholars across disciplines around the defining questions of modern times. The journal's relocation also recognizes Tulane's growing role in shaping international conversations in the humanities and social sciences while drawing on the distinctive intellectual and cultural landscape of New Orleans.

"It is a tremendous honor to welcome Public Culture to Tulane, where our commitment to interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the Gulf South and the Global South is our trademark," said Brian T. Edwards, dean of the Tulane School of Liberal Arts. "I am confident that our editorial sponsorship of the journal will bring new energy to this always dynamic journal and that hosting it at Tulane will benefit our faculty and students."

Edwards will serve as the journal's co-editor alongside Vyjayanthi Rao, an urban anthropologist, visiting professor at the Yale School of Architecture, curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and the journal's co-editor since 2023. Public Culture will continue to be published by Duke University Press three times a year.

"Duke University Press is thrilled to partner with Tulane University as the new institutional home for Public Culture," said Rob Dilworth, the journals director at Duke University Press. "We have great confidence in Tulane's ability to steward the journal into its next chapter, especially given the center's alignment with the journal's transnational focus. With the combined editorial leadership of Brian Edwards and Vyjayanthi Rao, we are excited to see how Public Culture will continue to challenge conventional thinking and shape global conversations in the humanities and social sciences."

Since its founding, Public Culture has brought together research that crosses geographic, intellectual and disciplinary boundaries.

"Public Culture was founded during a moment of opening and cultural exchange at the end of the Cold War," Rao said. "The journal's relevance continues to grow as possibilities for open exchange become simultaneously more intense and more uncertain and the need for slower-paced spaces for contemplation becomes critical. Public Culture will find a vibrant home at Tulane, where the institution's dynamism and the changing environment of the region will provide a space to contemplate the constitution of publics amidst rapidly shifting conditions."

At Tulane, Public Culture will create new opportunities for faculty collaboration, student engagement, visiting scholars and international dialogue. It will extend the center's mission beyond convening conversations to shaping them through one of the field's leading scholarly publications.

To support Public Culture's next phase, a new senior editorial board is being established that will be composed of Tulane faculty and distinguished scholars from institutions around the world, including Oxford, Columbia, UC Berkeley and Yale.