1. Wendy Castenell Co-edits Volume of the Nineteenth Century Studies Journal

By Lily Caldwell
February 4, 2026

Wendy Castenell, assistant professor of art history at Washington and Lee University, recently guest co-edited, alongside A. Maggie Hazard from Ball State University, a special volume of the Nineteenth Century Studies journal titled "Special Issue: Blackness, Race, and Racism in Nineteenth-Century Studies."

The issue explores how Blackness was constructed and problematized during the 19th century and the emergence of a Black identity during this period. The essays discuss themes of majority narratives propagating Black history and the expression of Black autonomy in a white supremacist culture.

The special issue formed out of the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, for which Castenell is a co-chair, that works to increase the organization's diversity. As a part of this initiative, the committee collaborated with the journal to produce a special issue featuring essays from the long 19th century on topics of race, racism and Blackness across disciplines. Castenell and Hazard volunteered to co-edit the issue, including deciding on a topic and writing the call for essays while working with the journal's regular editors.

"I've never edited Nineteenth Century Studies or any other journals," said Castenell. "It was certainly a steep learning curve, but it was overall a great experience. It has helped to demystify the process of publishing in academic journals, and I intend to submit work to the NCS journal in the future."

Nineteenth Century Studies is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that publishes studies of interest to scholars of the 19th century in all humanistic fields. The journal features scholarly research on literature, history, art, music and social sciences across the long 19th century, defined as the period from the American or French revolutions to World War I, primarily focusing on American, British and Continental topics.

"Selecting the theme of race, racism and Blackness in the long 19th century, writing a call for papers that would be appropriate for multiple disciplines and circulating and soliciting new scholarship within that framework was challenging because each essay needed to meet the requirements of being interdisciplinary, within the correct time period and additionally fitting within the theme," said Castenell. "It was exciting to receive the revised essays and to begin to see the issue take shape. Overall, it was a lot of work, and everything took longer than I could have anticipated, but I'm thrilled with the final results."

Castenell has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2022. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Tulane University, a Master of Arts in art history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Ph.D. in art history and archaeology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to W&L, Castenell was an assistant professor of African American art at The University of Alabama.

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