Editors: Weronika Suchacka, Hartmut Lutz, and Anna Kricka
The editors of TransCanadiana: Polish Journal of Canadian Studies invite sumbissions for the journal’s 8th volume „Canadian Sites of Resistance: Solidarity – Struggle – Change (?)“. TransCanadiana is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Polish Association of Canadian Studies (PACS). Every issue comprises articles on a subject specified by the editors, as well as short reviews of recent publications in the field of Canadian Studies, and a newsletter presenting information and updates on the activities of the PACS and Canadian Studies Centers in Poland.
In Culture and Resistance: Conversations with Edward W. Said, David Barsamian opens his introduction to the volume with the following words by Said: „I have been unable … to live an uncommitted or suspended life: I have not hesitated to declare my affiliation with an extremely unpopular cause.“ We hear the meaning of Said’s words reverberating in those by Audre Lorde in her seminal essay „The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power“: „And this is a grave responsibility projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.“ Each statement in reflecting upon different matters, yet both speak in the same voice – that of being ready to, as Lorde continues, „begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society.“ This is the voice that speaks loud and clear about disagreement with any form of enforcement and about resistance „against oppression“ (Lorde).
The capacity to resist dehumanization and to act in solidarityx against any forms of oppression constitute defining and fundamental human qualities throughout the course of history. Faced with our contemporary world of global and local unrest – wars, military interventions, terrorist threats and attacks, economic crises, political and social oppression, as well as environmental destruction – „a grave responsibility“ of reacting and taking a stand falls on all of us. Yet, the possibility of any change to a given status quo hinges not only on a standpoint one takes but most importantly on the actions that one performs, and these, as history shows, are rarely successful without group solidarity and mutual commitment to the struggle for a common cause.
As the previous volume of TransCanadiana has shown, Canada occupies an influential position in the global arena, shaping its international renown of soft power, and so while working towards its internal political, economic, social and cultural stability and progress, it „has sought constructive global solutions to increasingly global problems.“ Yet as the editors of the previous volume have also rightly pointed out, „There is, however, a darker side of Canada’s international image.“ Indeed, Canada’s path to its positive profile worldwide has been quite winding, resting on the largely unacknowledged systemic dispossession of Indigenous populations, and being marked in its history by conflict and struggle against political enforcement, racial and ethnic prejudice, social injustice, economic inequality and the destruction of the ecosystem. Moreover, what many examples from Canadian history and present current affairs in Canada show is that disagreement with and opposition to political, social, cultural and/or economic inhibition has been taking place in Canada from the bottom up, so that grassroots movements have become a crucial dimension of resistance in this country. It is thus from this perspective that the editors would like to open up a discussion about Canadian sites of collective resistance, their past and present examples, their meanings for the future, but also their potential for or failure at effecting change. Consequently the editors would like to examine the reassons and consequences, as well as forms and substance of different instances of group protest and defiance that have taken place not only within Canada but also beyond its borders to see if, how, and to what extend Canada voices and enacts its solidarity „against oppression“ in local and global terms.
The editors would like to invite contributions from Canadianists and scholars of other sutides who want to address the issue of resistance in Canada’s internal and international context. In this way, we hope to create an interdisciplinary exploration of the topic that might include, but is not limited to the analysis of opposing and protesting against:
- a hierarchical structuring of society and social existence;
- class, race, ethnic, and gender prejudice and marginalization;
- heteronormativity and all forms of sexist oppression;
- controlling and restricting various means of empowerment, e.g. access to knowledge;
- political oppression and disenfranchisement, e.g. censorship and silencing;
- discrimination against people on grounds of age or physical and mental impairment;
- the damage of ecology;
- persistence of internal colonialist structures and other forms of (neo)colonialism;
- linguistic and cultural assimilationist practices;
- globalization and late capitalism;
- strucutral and personal violence.
Brief article abstracts of c. 350 words as well as proposals for book reviews of c. 150 words (with complete bibliographical dertails) should be e-mailed to the editors by February 29, 2015. After the selection process is completed, and no later than March 31, 2015, the editors will invite authors to submit completed articles (max. 20 pages, double spaced, following MLA style) or reviews (max. 4 pages, double spaced, following MLA style) by May 1, 2016. Abstracts, proposals for book reviews, articles, and reviews should be written in English or in French.
Submissions in English should be e-mailed to Weronica Suchacka (PhD) or Hartmut Lutz (Prof. dr hab.).
Submissions in French should be e-mailed to Anna Kricka (PhD).