Call for Papers—Using and Building Archives of Difficult Pasts

Deadline for Submissions (to Canadian Literature): August 1, 2027, 9:00am (Pacific Time)

Submission Length: Articles (6,000–8,000 words), interviews (7,000–9,000 words)

Guest Editors: Chandrima Chakraborty and Amber Dean (English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University)

Literary and cultural studies scholars have always relied on archives of various kinds for research purposes, but it is striking how many of us are being pulled, often late in our careers, into the work of archive-building. We (the guest editors) have found ourselves compelled into service as amateur archivists in recent years, in large part because of our research and relationships with communities seeking greater recognition, documentation, and public education about historical traumas or mass violence and the ongoing disavowal or erasure of what we are (imperfectly) calling “difficult pasts.”

This special issue on using and building archives of difficult pasts aims to engage literary and cultural studies scholars, artists, and archivists in conversations about why and how we use and build such archives in our scholarly and/or creative work. What are the tensions/overlaps/differences between institutional archives and community archives, for example, when documenting difficult pasts? How can literary and cultural studies scholars, when contributing to the building of such archives while often lacking archival studies expertise, best engage with professional archivists’ dilemmas related to provenance, original order, acquisition policies, limits to space (physical and digital), funding, etc.? In other words, how might we better navigate what archivist and researcher Michelle Caswell calls the very real “differences in the ways in which humanities scholars and archival studies scholars view archives” (par. 3)?

Community archives are certainly not immune from the problems of inclusion and exclusion, exaltation and erasure that have long occupied humanities scholars working in institutional archives (see, for example, Sheffield; Ware; Brown; Haritaworn, Moussa, and Ware). As literary and cultural studies scholars, how do we navigate the complex dynamics of (un)belonging and representation within the communities in which we work (often communities to which we also belong) when we use or build archives of difficult pasts? What are our responsibilities when it comes to collecting, documenting, and sharing traumatic histories through personal artifacts and experiences?

Finally, many artists and creative cultural producers work with archives of difficult pasts, giving these materials lives beyond the archives and reaching much wider publics. Literary and cultural studies scholars regularly theorize the significance of these “creative works as knowledge—as testimony, remembrance, and witness to Canada’s racial past and present,” suggesting that such works offer “creative modes of engagement [with difficult pasts] that complement but also complicate and extend traditional historiographic accounts” (Chakraborty, Dean, and Failler, xx). For this special issue, we seek essays that demonstrate how archives of difficult pasts are relevant to Canadian literature, Canadian history, and Canadian creative artists.

In addition to essays on specific archives of difficult pasts in Canada, we welcome contributions including, but not limited to:

• analyses of the works of Canadian cultural producers and artists who draw on and contribute to archives of difficult pasts, unsettling familiar stories that dominate Canadian history and memory;
• essays that draw on original research conducted in archives of difficult pasts in Canada, methods used to approach such archives, methods of caring for such archives and the difficult histories, knowledges and experiences they document; how such archives potentially contribute to and/or challenge dominant ways of narrating or recalling the difficult pasts they document;
• essays that explore the relationship between archives of difficult pasts and pedagogy, such as the complexities of including material from such archives in courses or curricula, or of reimagining learning and its relationship to public and community life;
• reflections on useful methods and ethical conundrums related to using and building archives of difficult pasts while engaging with communities most proximate to the suffering or violence they document;
• explorations of the affordances of digital archives in reconfiguring complex historiographies;
• essays on the works of Canadian creative writers who engage with archives of difficult pasts in their work, e.g., Dionne Brand, Lawrence Hill, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Kerri Sakamoto, Vinh Nguyen, Richard Wagamese, David A. Robertson (and so many others, too many to list); and
• essays on the works of Canadian artists who engage with archives of difficult pasts in their work, e.g., Camille Turner, Deanna Bowen, Eisha Marjara, Rebecca Belmore (and so many others, too many to list).

In addition to traditional essays, we invite interviews with artists, scholars, archivists or other relevant practitioners on the topic of building and using archives of difficult pasts.

Works Cited

Brown, Elspeth H. “Archival Activism, Symbolic Annihilation, and the LGBTQ2+ Community Archive.” Archivaria, vol. 89, 2020, pp. 6–33.

Caswell, Michelle. “‘The Archive’ is not an Archives: On Acknowledging the Intellectual Contributions of Archival Studies.” Reconstruction, vol. 16, no.1, 2016.

Chakraborty, Chandrima, Amber Dean, and Angela Failler, editors. Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning. U of Alberta P, 2017.

Haritaworn, Jin, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware. “Marvellous Grounds: An Introduction.” Marvellous Grounds: Queer of Colour Histories of Toronto, edited by Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware, Between the Lines Press, 2018, pp. 1–20.

Sheffield, Rebecka Taves. “Introduction: Lesbian and Gay Archives in Queer Times.” Documenting Rebellions: A Study of Four Lesbian and Gay Archives in Queer Times, Litwin Books, 2020, pp. 1–20.

Ware, Syrus Marcus. “All Power to All People? Black LGBTTI2QQ Activism, Remembrance, and Archiving in Toronto.” Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2017, pp. 170–80.

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Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be sent online through our Open Journal Systems (OJS) portal.

All submissions to Canadian Literature must be original, unpublished work. Essays should follow current MLA bibliographic format (MLA Handbook, 9th ed.).

Please limit images accompanying submissions to those receiving substantial attention in the article. Contributors will be required to obtain permission to reproduce images in their article and pay for any permission costs. The journal will provide a template for permission requests; such requests must be completed before publication. Please send high-quality images as separate attachments along with your article file.

Please review our full submission guidelines prior to submitting.

 NB: Authors are welcome to email abstracts and drafts to the guest editors Chandrima Chakraborty (chandri@mcmaster.ca) and Amber Dean (deanamb@mcmaster.ca) for feedback if desired, but these steps are not required for submission. Please send abstracts by December 15, 2026 (PT) and drafts by May 15, 2027 (PT).

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Contact Us

Feel free to contact the guest editors Chandrima Chakraborty (chandri@mcmaster.ca) and Amber Dean (deanamb@mcmaster.ca) or Canadian Literature (can.lit@ubc.ca) with any questions.