Call for Cover Art

11th Edition (2026–27)

For the first time, the Oxford Middle East Review (OMER), a student-run, peer-reviewed publication based at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, invites artists, photographers, illustrators, and creative practitioners to submit original artwork for the cover of our 11th print edition, themed Making.

As part of our commitment to expanding the relationship between artistic practice and academic publishing, we invite visual contributions that engage critically, creatively, or experimentally with this year’s theme.

About the Theme: Making

Making requires what already exists: materials, histories, institutions, ideas, and inherited forms. Across Southwest Asia and North Africa, people continually make and remake worlds through artistic production and craft, cities and infrastructures, states and institutions, knowledge and archives, identities and communities.

We invite contributors to consider making as both a creative practice and a social, political, and cultural process. Who makes, and under what conditions? What becomes possible to make, preserve, or rebuild? What is prevented, contested, or destroyed? How might artistic practices challenge established meanings, sustain collective memory, or imagine alternative futures?

Interpretations of the theme may be personal, political, material, conceptual, or experimental. We welcome work that approaches Making through different artistic traditions, perspectives, and media.

What We’re Looking For

We welcome original visual artwork suitable for a printed journal cover, including:

Photography
Illustration and drawing
Painting and digital artwork
Collage and mixed media
Graphic art and experimental visual compositions
Other visual forms that engage meaningfully with the theme

We encourage creative interpretations of Making and do not prescribe a particular aesthetic, medium, or approach.

Who Can Submit?

OMER welcomes submissions from students, artists, photographers, illustrators, and creative practitioners, regardless of institutional affiliation or previous publication experience.

Submission Requirements

Please include:

Your name and preferred contact email
Title of the artwork (if applicable)
The proposed cover artwork, submitted as a digital image
A brief artist statement (up to 250 words) describing the work and its relationship to Making
The medium and year of creation
Confirmation that you created the work and hold the necessary rights to authorise its publication

Initial submissions may be sent as JPEG, PNG, or PDF files. We will request a high-resolution version suitable for print if your artwork is selected.

Please submit the artwork without adding the journal title or other cover text. OMER will coordinate the final cover layout with the selected contributor.

Selection and Publication

The OMER editorial team will review submissions based on their engagement with the theme, artistic contribution, and suitability for the journal’s printed cover.

The selected artwork will feature on the cover of OMER’s 11th edition, with full attribution to its creator.

While one artwork will be selected for the cover, other submissions may also be considered for publication within the print edition or on OMER’s website and digital platforms. We hope to showcase a range of artistic perspectives and creative interpretations of Making beyond the cover itself.

All contributors will receive appropriate attribution, and OMER will seek their explicit permission before publishing their work in any format.

OMER is committed to a collaborative editorial process. We will consult the selected contributor regarding any necessary cropping, formatting, or adjustments to accommodate the journal’s cover design.

Contributors retain copyright in their original artwork. Publication will be subject to an agreed licence granting OMER permission to reproduce the selected work on the journal’s cover and in associated promotional materials.