Histoires de crises

Crisis History


Call for Papers

Canadian Journal of History
Guest editors: Jim Clifford, Erika Dyck, & Elizabeth Scott

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic American immunologist and Chief Advisor to the US President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, suggested that humanity may be entering a Pandemic Age. As historians we may be sensitive to the naming of periods or eras that coincide with a current moment, but we cannot deny that this pandemic has influenced how we relate to the past or a pre-pandemic world. While Covid 19-related policies overwhelmed our social media feeds and dominated our lives for at least several months, the pandemic eventually competed for our attention with other crises: Black Lives Matter movements, escalating climate crises, a new war in Ukraine, the findings of mass grave sites at Indian Residential Schools in Canada, freedom convoys, and a reversal of Roe v. Wade. If Dr. Fauci is correct that we are entering a pandemic era, we might need to better understand how pandemics trigger, exacerbate, or reveal other tensions, perhaps even enough to warrant a characterization of this moment as a crisis era.

In this special issue we seek contributions from historians working on crisis histories. How has the pandemic context shaped our understanding of crisis? How are historians accommodating a pandemic context when studying other events? Can we tease apart the pandemic from other major historical events? How will the pandemic influence the historical implications of other crises? For example, does the 2022 US Supreme Court decision regarding abortion have particular implications due to the lingering effects of the pandemic that may continue to restrict people’s movement and access to healthcare? How have Ukrainian refugees negotiated the need to move and shelter amidst Covid? In short, how has, or will, pandemic thinking affect the way we do history?

Those interested should send a brief CV and an abstract of 300 words by September 30, 2022 to cjh@utpress.utoronto.ca.

Invited authors will be notified in October 2022 and asked to submit a full 10,000-word article by February 15, 2023.

Manuscripts for consideration will undergo double-blind peer review, with authors notified about publication decisions in May, and accepted papers appearing in the Winter (November/December) 2023 edition of CJH/ACH.