Call for Submissions
Deadline: Submission date January 31, 2026
Special Issue
From Margin to Center: Black Canadian Hemispheric Perspectives
In the current climate of polarizing politics, marked by global wars, resurgent border nationalism, xenophobia, and rising conservatism against race and gender equity, it is crucial to understand the diversity of Black experiences across the continent, particularly how their navigation of social, political and cultural life converges and diverges across time, space and place. This special issue calls for cross-border reflections on the often-underrepresented Black Canadian experiences. Canada shares a history of settler colonialism, slavery, and anti-Black racism with other nations across the Americas and Europe, a legacy that Black Canadian scholars have brought to the fore, challenging the country’s self-image as a racially inclusive nation (Austin, 2010; Bakan, 2008; Cooper, 2007; Este, Sato & McKenna, 2017; Maynard, 2017; Walcott, 1997, 2014).
Black Canadian scholars and activists have exposed Canada’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade and its aftermath, as well as the proliferation of the Black power movement across Canada and its interconnection with Black liberation efforts across the diaspora, pointedly, the American civil rights movement (Austin, 2007; Waters, 2013). These histories and solidarities are not isolated; they offer unique insight into the ways Black Canadians have contributed to the Black Radical Tradition – defined by Cedric Robinson and expanded by other scholars as a Black diasporic tradition, and transnational movement of resistance using intellectual, creative and grassroots mediums (Austin, 2007).
This special issue on Black Canadian perspectives is a provocation to consider the following questions:
1. How do Black Canadian experiences challenge and reshape ideas of race, nation, and belonging across the hemisphere?
2. How does the Black radical tradition emerge and develop in a Canadian context, and how does it compare with other regions across the Americas, including the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean?
3. What new insights, solidarities, and tensions emerge when Black Canadian voices are centred in hemispheric conversations?
A special issue on hemispheric dialogue around Black Canadian experiences is necessary to nuance dominant narratives on race, nation, and belonging within Black Americas Studies. This special issue invites submissions that spark new conversations and scholarship to engage with the overlooked connections and differences between Black Canadian histories, cultures, and movements and those of the broader Americas, challenging binaries like North/South, margin/center, and local/global. We invite reflections on the evolution, challenges, and future of hemispheric perspectives on Black Canadians, focusing on their impact in academia, activism, and community.
As an interdisciplinary space, we seek comparative and interdisciplinary work that highlights the complexity and radical possibilities of Black Canadian perspectives in dialogue with the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States, in addition to critical engagement with the Black Atlantic.
We encourage submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:
1. Histories, Archives, and Memory: Uncovering Black Canadian lives in past and present contexts, and inviting comparative analyses with the Caribbean, United States, and Latin America, exploring shared, divergent, and intersecting histories, migrations, and forms of remembrance.
2. Black Canadian Activism, Radical Traditions, and Community Leadership: Examining activism, resistance strategies, and community building in Canada and across the Americas; comparing movements, mutual aid, and leadership with the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US.
3. Black Radical Tradition: Theorizing the Black Radical Tradition in Canadian contexts, and/or considering the intellectual currents, solidarities and tensions between Black radicalism in Canada with other regions across the Americas.
4. Theoretical and Methodological Reflections: Engaging new and established theories (diaspora, Black feminism, abolition, intersectionality, decoloniality) and methodological practices for Black Canadian Studies; introducing new hemispheric perspectives and cross-border research approaches.
5. Intersectionality, Gender, and Lived Realities: Exploring the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, masculinity, women and girls, gender equality, sexuality, migration, and ability; and comparing advocacy and lived realities with other regions in the Americas.
6. Imagination, Creativity, and Cultural Expression: Black Canadian literature, music, visual art, and performance in conversation with artistic and cultural expression from the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US; examining how the arts foster dialogue, resistance, and creative futures.
We welcome papers that focus specifically on Black Canadian experiences, histories, and cultural production. While direct comparisons across the hemisphere are encouraged, submissions may also focus on the Canadian context alone, provided they critically consider what these perspectives contribute to, challenge, or illuminate about Black life, thought, and struggle in the Americas, and consider their implications for understanding Black Diasporic life at large. We invite authors to reflect on how Black Canadian Studies can offer new insights, questions, or frameworks for the wider Black diaspora and the study of Black Americas.
Proposals are welcome from various disciplines. Papers must be original, scholarly, and not previously published or under consideration elsewhere. Guidelines: Authors who wish to contribute to the special issue are invited to send an article (maximum 7,500–10,000 words) including the title, authors, institutional affiliation, and an abstract to fiar@interamerica.de, info@jamilahds.com, and wilfried.raussert@uni-bielefeld.de by January 31, 2026. By March 2026, you will receive information on the acceptance of your abstract. Submissions can be made in English or French. This special issue of the FIAR is expected to be published in the fall of 2026.
___________________________________________________________________________
Convocatoria abierta | Llamado a presentar manuscritos
Fecha límite para recepción de los artículos:
30 de enero de 2026
Temática: Feminismos en el mundo académico:
Diálogos, genealogías y resistencias
Edición especial Junio 2026
Feminismos en el mundo académico: Diálogos, genealogías y resistencias
¿Qué han significado los estudios feministas en el mundo académico y cómo se han caracterizado? Estas preguntas inspiran la propuesta de este dossier que busca abrir un espacio de reflexión y debate sobre los feminismos en el ámbito universitario y sus múltiples transformaciones.
En América Latina y el Caribe, pero también en otras regiones del continente, los feminismos académicos han emergido como un campo de disputa y creación que desborda las fronteras disciplinarias y los muros universitarios. No se trata únicamente de reflexiones producidas desde la academia, sino de diálogos constantes con los movimientos sociales, las luchas por la justicia de género, racial y sexual, y las memorias colectivas que atraviesan a nuestras sociedades. Estos feminismos cuestionan los modos de producción de conocimiento, abren grietas en las jerarquías epistémicas y pedagógicas, y generan espacios para pensar y actuar desde la universidad como un territorio de resistencia e imaginación política.
Este dossier busca abrir un espacio de reflexión en torno a la emergencia, consolidación y transformaciones de los estudios feministas y de género en el ámbito interamericano. Desde una reflexividad (auto)crítica, proponemos volver la mirada hacia nuestra historia y examinar el papel de las universidades como espacios de debate, encuentro, investigación, experimentación y resistencia.
Nos interesa, en particular, recuperar esas historias tejidas sobre los procesos de conformación e institucionalización de los estudios feministas y de género en el paisaje interamericano –incluyendo América Latina, el Caribe, Estados Unidos y Canadá–, atendiendo a las tensiones, negociaciones y apuestas colectivas que han dado forma a este campo en diferentes contextos nacionales, regionales, institucionales y generacionales.
Convocamos al envío de contribuciones que exploren los aportes y debates desarrollados en los entornos universitarios, tanto en los ámbitos epistemológico y metodológico, como en la docencia y en el vínculo con la sociedad. Se trata de enredar diálogos múltiples que animen los conocimientos desde los estudios feministas en las ciencias sociales y las humanidades, así como desde la etnografía, la memoria, la historia oral, la escritura, las artes y las visualidades.
Temáticas propuestas:
● Epistemologías y metodologías feministas: debates en torno a la producción de conocimientos y la reflexividad crítica.
● Docencia y pedagogías feministas: experiencias de enseñanza-aprendizaje que cuestionan jerarquías y promueven horizontes colectivos.
● Memoria, historia oral y archivos: trayectorias y genealogías de mujeres, colectivas y redes en la universidad.
● Artes, escritura y visualidades: cruces entre creación artística y pensamiento feminista en el ámbito académico.
● Activismo y academia: tensiones, diálogos y sinergias entre movimientos sociales y universidades.
● Generaciones y legados: interpelaciones entre pioneras y nuevas generaciones en los estudios feministas.
● Procesos de institucionalización: historias y debates sobre la conformación de los estudios feministas y de género en distintas universidades y países de la región.
Este dossier entiende la academia no como un espacio aislado, sino como un terreno atravesado por luchas, tensiones y apuestas colectivas que contribuyen a la creación en común de conocimientos y a la construcción de otros mundos posibles.
Se aceptan propuestas provenientes de diversas disciplinas, como los estudios literarios, los estudios culturales, la historia, la sociología y los estudios sobre los medios de comunicación.
Los trabajos deben ser originales, académicos y no haber sido publicados con anterioridad o estar siendo considerados para su publicación en otro lugar.
Editoras invitadas:
• Ana Lau Jaiven (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Unidad Xochimilco)
• Olvia Maisterra Sierra (Universidad de Guadalajara)
Normas de Envío y Formato
Las personas interesadas en contribuir al número especial de la revista deben enviar sus artículos antes del 30 de enero de 2026.
Requisitos de envío:
• Extensión: El artículo debe tener un máximo de 7,500 a 10,000 palabras.
• Contenido del envío: El archivo debe incluir:
o Título del artículo.
o Nombre del/de la autor(a) o autores/as.
o Afiliación institucional.
o Muy breve bio
o Un resumen.
• Formato: Todas las contribuciones deben ajustarse estrictamente a la hoja de estilo MLA de la revista. Puede consultar las directrices completas en: https://interamerica.de/submitting-to-fiar/submission-guidelines/c.
• Idiomas aceptados: Español, inglés, portugués y francés.
• Dirección de envío: Los artículos deben enviarse a las siguientes direcciones de correo electrónico:
o fiar@interamerica.de
o wilfried.raussert@uni-bielefeld.de
o olvia.maisterra@academicos.udg.mx
Proceso editorial:
• Evaluación: Todos los artículos serán sometidos a un proceso de revisión por pares ciego.
• Confirmación de aceptación: La notificación de los artículos aceptados se enviará alrededor del 30 de marzo de 2026.
• Fecha de publicación: La publicación de este número especial de FIAR está prevista para el 30 de junio de 2026.
—–ENGLISH——-
Theme: Feminisms in academia:
Dialogues, Genealogies, and Resistances
Open call | Call for papers
Special edition June 2026
Deadline for receipt of articles:
January 30, 2026
Feminisms in academia: Dialogues, genealogies, and resistance
What is the significance of feminist studies in academia, and how have they been characterized? These questions inspire the proposal for this dossier, which seeks to create a space for reflection and debate on feminisms in the university sphere and their multiple transformations.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in other parts of the continent, academic feminisms have emerged as a site of dispute and creation that overflows disciplinary boundaries and university walls. These are not merely reflections produced within academia, but also involve constant dialogues with social movements, struggles for gender, racial, and sexual justice, and the collective memories that run through our societies. These feminisms challenge modes of knowledge production, create fissures in epistemic and pedagogical hierarchies, and generate spaces to think and act with the university as a site of resistance and political imagination.
This special issue aims to foster reflection on the emergence, consolidation, and transformation of feminist and gender studies across the Americas. Through a (self-)critical lens, we propose a retrospective examination of our history and of the role of universities as sites of debate, encounter, research, experimentation, and resistance.
We are particularly interested in recovering the stories woven into the formation and institutionalization of feminist and gender studies across the Americas—including Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada. We aim to pay close attention to the tensions, negotiations, and collective commitments that have shaped this field within diverse national, regional, institutional, and generational contexts.
We call for contributions that explore the key debates and intellectual developments within university environments, encompassing epistemological, methodological, pedagogical, and public engagement spheres. The goal is to weave together multiple dialogues that energize knowledge production stemming from feminist studies in the social sciences and humanities, as well as from domains such as ethnography, memory, oral history, writing, the arts, and visual cultures.
Proposed topics:
• Feminist epistemologies and methodologies: debates on knowledge production and critical reflexivity.
• Feminist teaching and pedagogies: teaching-learning experiences that challenge hierarchies and foster collective horizons.
• Memory, oral history, and archives: trajectories and genealogies of women, collectives, and networks within the university.
• Arts, writing, and visualities: intersections between artistic creation and feminist thought within academia.
• Activism and academia: tensions, dialogues, and synergies between social movements and universities.
• Generations and legacies: interrelations between pioneers and new generations in feminist studies.
• Processes of institutionalization: histories and debates on the establishment of feminist and gender studies across universities and countries in the region.
This special issue conceives academia not as an isolated space, but as a terrain shaped by struggles, tensions, and collective endeavors that contribute to the co-creation of knowledge and the imagining of other possible worlds.
We welcome proposals from a wide range of disciplines, including literary studies, cultural studies, history, sociology, and media studies.
Submitted papers must be original, scholarly, and should not have been previously published or be under review elsewhere.
Guest editors:
• Ana Lau Jaiven (Autonomous Metropolitan University – Xochimilco Campus)
• Olvia Maisterra Sierra (University of Guadalajara)
Submission and Format Guidelines
Those interested in contributing to the special issue of the journal should submit their articles by January 30, 2026.
Submission requirements:
• Length: Articles should be between 7,500 and 10,000 words in length.
• Submission content: The file must include:
o Article title.
o Name of the author(s).
o Institutional affiliation.
o Very short bio
o An abstract.
• Format: All contributions must strictly adhere to the journal’s MLA style sheet. The complete guidelines can be found at: https://interamerica.de/submitting-to-fiar/submission-guidelines/.
• Accepted languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French.
• Submission address: Articles should be sent to the following email addresses:
o fiar@interamerica.de
o wilfried.raussert@uni-bielefeld.de
o olvia.maisterra@academicos.udg.mx
Editorial process:
• Evaluation: All articles will undergo a double blind peer review process.
• Confirmation of acceptance: Notification of accepted articles will be sent around March 30, 2026.
• Publication date: This special issue of FIAR is scheduled for publication on June 30, 2026.