Call for Papers: Journal of Go Studies 2026 2nd Issue

/June 26, 2026

Recalibrating Go Studies

Over the past decade, Go scholarship in the post-AlphaGo era has witnessed remarkable expansion. Yet we must now confront an unavoidable question: What do we seek to understand through Go?

The interdisciplinary dispersal of Go research—from computer science to historical anthropology—testifies undeniably to the field’s richness. But in this very process, are we not also experiencing a troubling opacity: the loss of a coherent sense of what Go itself is? The cultural roots of an East Asian game, its contemporary position in Korean and Chinese societies, questions of pedagogy and ethics, the philosophical significance of Go in an age of AI—how might all these dimensions speak to one another within a single scholarly domain?

For the second issue of 2026, the Journal of Go Studies proposes a special section, “Recalibrating Go Studies,” situated precisely at this juncture. We invite contributions that critically examine the existing interdisciplinary approaches to Go and explore how Go scholarship might become more integrative while remaining acutely context-sensitive to the traditions and questions that animate it.

Potential Topics for the Special Section (but not limited to):

● The disciplinary fragmentation of Go studies: investigating tensions between how Go is understood across different fields
● East Asian philosophy meets Western thought: utilitarianism, science, and the ethics of Go
● Historical divergences and contemporary convergences among Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Go traditions
● What does ‘Human Go’ mean in the age of artificial intelligence—cultural heritage, aesthetic practice, game theory, or something else?

In addition to special issue submissions, we warmly welcome general articles across all areas of Go studies. We invite high-quality scholarly contributions on the history and philosophy of Go, Go pedagogy, the cultural and social dimensions of Go play, related technologies, and allied fields of inquiry. Excellent scholarship, regardless of its alignment with the special theme, will find a welcoming home in our pages.

Key Dates

● August 15, 2026: Abstract deadline (500 words, to be sent to badukstudies@gmail.com)
● October 31, 2026: Full article submission deadline
● November 30, 2026: Planned publication date



June 26, 2026
Editor-In-Chief: Bae Incheol