The Persona Studies journal, investigates the presentation of self and masks we use, as we constantly construct versions of ourselves. We also run international seminars bi-annually.

As a term, persona has a long and storied history. Whether indicating the role of masks on performers in Ancient Greece or taking a Jungian turn into an embodied interface, describing the outcome of the process of ‘self-branding’ or being used by designers to describe the aggregate personalities used to imagine the target market for products or campaigns, persona encompasses something intriguing to those of us who are interested in how we engage in social interactions with one another. It is a version of the self. It is a construction, whether physical or digital. It is partial, targeted, performance, performative, role play.

Through our studies in this area, we have identified five initial dimensions of persona, intended as starting points or provocations, rather than a check-list of criteria. These dimensions are that personas are 1. public, 2. mediatized, 3. performative, 4. collective, and 5. composed of value, agency, reputation, and prestige (summarised as VARP). We offer these dimensions up to academe and beyond, and encourage challenge, extension, and dissent, in the hopes that others find value and reward in exploring personas. Part of that work is ongoing through the journal Persona Studies, which operates as an inclusive and interdisciplinary peer reviewed space for creative, scholarly, and professional considerations of persona. We particularly hope for and encourage engagement from structurally marginalised folk.

Interested in submitting to this journal?
The journal welcomes abstract, full manuscript and creative practice submissions on a rolling basis submitted to personastudies@gmail.com, and in response to calls for papers around a central theme.

We recommend that you review the Author Guidelines and Peer Review policy. In addition please review the Ethics and Malpractice statement as it outlines the publication ethics standards that this Journal endorses.

Submissions will be vetted by an editor, and if accepted you will receive log-in details for the website via email to allow you to submit to the journal website for peer review. Those submissions accepted for publication after peer-review that do not fit into a themed section will be published in an open section of a forthcoming issue.

Please Note: This journal does not charge APCs or submission charges.