Call for Papers: Canadian Jewry and its Transnational Connections

Joint Publication on Canadian Jewry and its Transnational Connections

Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory, and Culture

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes

Guest Editor: Norman Ravvin (Concordia University)

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes and Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory, and Culture are pleased to announce a special collaboration showcasing new scholarship on Canadian Jewry and its transnational connections.

The partnership stems from a shared interest in amplifying original, comparative, and interdisciplinary research involving Canadian Jewish content to a global scholarly readership. Guest edited by literary scholar Norman Ravvin, contributions will be organized around several themes but divided up for publication between the two journals, which will each publish the material concurrently as special sections in autumn 2027. The guest editor, in consultation with editors at Text Matters and CJS / Éjc, will curate the special sections in both journals. Articles will appear in either journal, but not in both.

Possible avenues of inquiry include:

  • Jewish responses to and participation in Canada’s changing identity over time, including such challenges as contemporary US-Canada relations
  • Transnational or transatlantic links in the Canadian Jewish experience
  • The legacies of European heritage among Canadian Jews
  • Wartime connections between Canadian and European Jewry
  • Canadian Jewish responses to nationalistic and isolationist sentiments across time and space
  • Canadian multicultural ideals as they relate to Jewish themes
  • Past or present relationships between Polish (or other Eastern European) and Canadian Jewish history and culture, heritage travel, or museums.
  • The place of Polish (or other Eastern European) ancestry and family stories in contemporary Canadian Jewish lives.

The journals welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to literature, cultural studies, history, sociology, political science, law, religious studies, music, visual arts, and museum studies. Note that articles focusing on Polish/Eastern European Jewish-Canadian Jewish connections are most likely to appear in CJS / Éjc.

Please submit completed manuscripts to Norman Ravvin (norman.ravvin@concordia.ca) by November 20, 2026. Articles should arrive between 5,000–7,000 words in length, including notes. Please consult the submission instructions at Text Matters for details on how to prepare your manuscript. Please include a short abstract (max. 250 words) and biography (max. 200 words) along with your submission.

Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture, based at the University of Lodz, is an international and interdisciplinary journal that seeks to engage in contemporary debates in the humanities by inviting contributions from literary and cultural studies intersecting with literary theory, gender studies, history, philosophy and religion.

To learn more, visit https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/index.

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, published by the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies and based at York University, is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to original scholarship that illuminates any and all aspects of the Canadian Jewish experience.

To learn more, visit https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjs/index.