About PublicPast

PublicPast is an international, interdisciplinary, quarterly open-access scholarly journal dedicated to exploring the relationships between people, the past, and public life. Published from Kerala, India, the journal provides a platform for rigorous scholarship that brings historical knowledge into conversation with the experiences, concerns, and interests of people beyond academic institutions.

We believe that history is more than a record of rulers, political institutions, wars, monuments, and major events. It is also the story of the people who sustain economies, build communities, transmit knowledge, preserve memories, challenge established arrangements, and shape the societies in which they live. Their experiences and contributions are essential to understanding how the world has been formed and how it continues to change.

PublicPast seeks to make these connections visible through accessible, research-based writing that combines scholarly integrity with a clear sense of public relevance. We welcome historical inquiry that moves across geographical boundaries, historical periods, and academic disciplines, bringing diverse experiences and perspectives into wider discussions.

Our commitment is to scholarship that is rigorous in its research, critical in its interpretation, and accessible in its communication.

PublicPast exists to encourage a wider engagement with history and historical knowledge. We seek to create a scholarly space in which research can contribute not only to academic discussions but also to public understanding of society, culture, identity, and historical change.

We are particularly interested in the experiences and contributions of ordinary people. Workers, migrants, farmers, women, families, local communities, and other social groups have played important roles in shaping economic systems, cultural practices, political movements, and collective identities. Yet their experiences do not always receive sufficient attention in established historical narratives.

We encourage scholarship that examines how people participate in making history, how their lives are affected by wider social and historical processes, and how the past continues to influence public life.

At the same time, PublicPast recognises that understanding people's experiences often requires examining institutions, structures of power, economic relationships, and political decisions. Our interest lies in understanding how these forces interact with human agency and collective experience.

We aim to make scholarly knowledge available to a wider readership without compromising the standards of evidence, critical inquiry, and academic integrity on which meaningful research depends.

PublicPast welcomes original research, critical scholarship, book reviews, and other contributions appropriate to the journal's editorial programme. We encourage submissions that approach the past and public life through historical inquiry, interdisciplinary research, and the examination of people's experiences and participation in society.

Our interests extend across a wide range of subjects, including everyday life, migration, labour, gender, caste and class, economic transformation, cultural practices, public memory, social movements, oral history, archaeology, heritage, museums, archives, and the public interpretation of historical knowledge.

We also welcome historically informed examinations of contemporary issues and research exploring how communities understand, remember, and engage with their pasts.

PublicPast is not restricted to a particular geographical region or historical period. While the journal is published from India, its intellectual interests extend across South Asia and the wider world. We encourage contributions that illuminate local experiences, examine broader historical processes, or connect particular communities and places with wider social and historical transformations.

We value work that brings different disciplines and methodologies into conversation, provided that it offers a meaningful contribution to the journal's public-centred mission.

For a detailed explanation of the subjects and approaches we welcome, please consult our Aims and Scope.

Rigorous Research, Accessible Writing

PublicPast understands accessibility as an essential part of scholarly communication. Research can be methodologically rigorous and intellectually sophisticated while remaining understandable to readers who are not specialists in the subject.

We therefore encourage authors to communicate their arguments clearly, explain specialist concepts where necessary, and avoid unnecessary jargon. Our aim is not to simplify history by removing its complexity, but to make that complexity accessible to a broader readership.

We welcome different forms of evidence and approaches to research, including archival materials, oral histories, archaeological evidence, quantitative analysis, and interdisciplinary methods. Whatever the approach, contributions should demonstrate appropriate engagement with evidence, sound reasoning, and a clear contribution to knowledge.

We also recognise that public engagement involves more than making academic writing easier to read. It requires taking seriously the experiences, memories, knowledge, and perspectives of the people whose lives are being studied. We encourage scholarship that examines how historical knowledge is produced, interpreted, communicated, and understood in different social contexts.

Beyond Conventional Historical Narratives

PublicPast seeks to broaden the ways in which history is researched and communicated. We are interested not only in established historical narratives but also in the experiences, activities, and contributions that help explain how societies function and change.

This does not mean excluding political history, institutional studies, the history of influential individuals, or the analysis of power. Rather, we encourage approaches that consider how these subjects relate to people's lives and how individuals and communities participate in, experience, and respond to historical processes.

Through this perspective, PublicPast aims to encourage a richer understanding of history: one that connects large-scale developments with everyday experiences and recognises the significance of people in shaping the world around them.

PublicPast welcomes scholarship from researchers working across disciplines, geographical contexts, and historical periods. We value contributions that introduce readers to different experiences, challenge established interpretations, and open new avenues for historical and interdisciplinary inquiry.

We seek to build a scholarly community that values intellectual openness, critical engagement, responsible research, and constructive academic exchange.

The journal welcomes contributions from established scholars and early-career researchers alike. What matters is the quality of the research, the clarity of its argument, its contribution to knowledge, and its relevance to the journal's aims.

By bringing diverse perspectives into conversation, PublicPast hopes to contribute to a more inclusive and accessible understanding of the past and its significance for public life.

PublicPast is part of our broader commitment to making research accessible and encouraging meaningful engagement with historical knowledge. Through open-access publishing, we aim to make the journal's scholarship available to readers without requiring a subscription to access its published content.

Learn more about Histora Publications.

PublicPast is committed to maintaining scholarly quality, publication integrity, and fair editorial practices.

Research submissions undergo editorial screening to assess their relevance to the journal's aims, originality, scholarly quality, and suitability for further consideration. Manuscripts proceeding beyond the initial assessment are handled according to the journal's applicable peer-review procedures.

Where double-blind peer review is used, identifying information is concealed from reviewers and authors to support an impartial assessment. Editorial decisions take account of the manuscript's quality, the assessments received, and its contribution to the journal.

Book reviews and other contribution types may follow different assessment procedures, depending on the journal's editorial policy.

PublicPast expects authors to adhere to appropriate standards of research integrity, accurate attribution, originality, and responsible scholarly practice. For further information, please consult our editorial policies and submission guidelines.