Blog Policies

Sponsored Posts

Thanks to the generosity of the Penn State Department of History, The Metropole is able to pay a $200 flat fee to contributors to 5 theme months in 2022-2023. To receive compensation, authors must be solicited by a senior co-editor to participate in a theme month or submit a pitch that clearly articulates the relevance of their proposed post to the theme month.

Ko-Fi Links

We invite all writers and editors to make a Ko-fi creator page and include links in any post they write or edit. Ko-fi is a way to support creators by buying them a cup of coffee (not literally, it’s a cash transaction). We ask readers, if they particularly enjoyed a post or found it helpful, to follow the ko-fi links and support our contributors and editors.

To make a Ko-fi creator page and submit it to The Metropole, follow these instructions:

1. Visit ko-fi.com. In the top right corner, click “Start a Page.”

2. When you’re done following the directions to create a page, you will end up at “Your Page,” which should feature your own name and user profile. Find “Buttons” in the left sidebar menu and click it.

3. Click the top option, “Ko-fi Button Widget.”

4. The window that opens will default to “Button.” Please don’t send us that script. WordPress can’t eat it. Instead, toggle the second option, “Image.”

5. Feel free to choose your color, then click the “Copy Code” button.

6. This is what it will look like when we add your Ko-fi link to a post.

Like these instructions? Show your thanks to Avigail Oren.

We are happy to add ko-fi links to past posts. Please provide us with your Ko-fi link and a list of posts that you would like us to add it to.

Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Metropole. To make sure that authors and editors collaborate successfully and efficiently, we ask guest bloggers to adhere to the following guidelines.

The basics:

• Guest blog posts must be original pieces not published elsewhere on the web
• Please pitch the editors in advance by emailing themetropole@urbanhistory.org
• We are open to submissions by non-members, but encourage guest bloggers to join the UHA

The details:

Posts

• We accept original pieces on any aspect of urban history or on topics that are of interest to urbanists. These may take the form of essays, historiographies, bibliographies, transcribed interviews, reviews of books or other media, overviews of special collections, travelogues, or news analyses.
• Posts should range from 500-2000 words, with the exception of book reviews, historiographies, and bibliographies, which may be longer. Posts should not exceed 2000 words.
• For essays, reviews, historiographies, bibliographies, and news analysis, use links or Chicago Style footnotes to properly attribute others’ scholarship and reporting. When linking to books, please avoid booksellers; we prefer you link to the publisher’s website or Google Books.

Series

• The Metropole currently has an ongoing Metropolis of the Month series, and welcomes pitches related to upcoming cities.
• “Disciplining the City,” edited by Matt Guariglia, accepts pitches related to policing and the carceral state.
• The Metropole Bookshelf is a venue for authors of forthcoming or recently released books to provide a personal reflection and overview of the book. It should not be a version of the book’s back copy, but should provide readers with the book’s backstory, or your motivation for writing it, or the journey involved in its writing.
• The Metropole book review section is co-edited by Jim Wunsch, Jacob Bruggeman, and Eric Michael Rhodes.
• The Metropole also accepts pitches for new series. We ask that you email a 100-200 word pitch to themetropole@urbanhistory.org, describing the topic of the series, why readers may find it of interest, a list of authors and collaborators, and three potential post ideas.

Submission

• We ask that you email a 100-200 word pitch to themetropole@urbanhistory.org, describing the topic of the post, format, and why readers may find it of interest.
• If the pitch is accepted, the author and editor will agree on a date for the post to run. Posts must be submitted one week in advance of the agreed-upon publication date.
• Please submit posts in a Microsoft Word file (.docx). Include a title for the post.
• In the email, please provide your name, title, affiliation, an author image, and a short bio.
• We appreciate if contributors can provide accompanying images (with permissions and attribution).

Editing

• The Metropole is not a peer-reviewed publication.
• Editors reserve the right to edit your article for grammar, spelling, and clarity. If more significant editing is required, the post will be returned to the author with a list of requested changes. Please do not be offended if we ask for revision—it is with the goal of making the author look good and providing the best possible product to our readers.
• Editors will format posts to make them consistent with blog content.

Republishing and Publicity

• Our goal is to provide the members of the Urban History Association with a space to share their interests and promote their work. As such, we allow authors to republish posts on their personal websites and blogs, but ask that a note is included indicating the post originally appeared on The Metropole and providing a link back to the blog.
• To ensure maximum exposure for your hard work, please help us publicize your post via social media!

Posts on The Metropole represent the view of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Urban History Association or its Board of Directors.