Call for Papers: Special Volume on Art / Jews / Canada (2024-2025)

Special Editor: Sara Angel (Art Canada Institute) 

Since William Raphael (1833–1914) became the first Jewish artist to establish a professional practice in Canada, the subject of Judaism and visual culture has had a long and meaningful history that has told the story of Canadian Jews from the nineteenth century to the present. 

The Jewish population in Canada is the fourth largest in the world. Jewish art in Canada is an expression of the culture, identity, spirituality, politics, and religion of the Jewish people. The study of Jewish art addresses the complexities and reflects the experience of Jewish life.

For this special volume we welcome essays that explore Jewish contributions to the world of Canadian visual culture. We are interested in works about Jewish artists, whether or not their art has focused on explicitly Jewish themes, as well as non-Jewish artists who have depicted Jewish life in Canada or produced work that touches on Jewishness in a meaningful way.  

We are also interested in surveying the role of Jewish art dealers, art collectors, art educators, critics, scholars, and curators. These individuals, like their artist counterparts, have impacted and shaped the rhythms of Canadian visual culture and of the art world / art market over time and space—from both Jewish and non-Jewish perspectives.

Avenues of inquiry include but are not limited to articles that treat: 

  • Jewish Art and Identity in Canada 
  • Canadian Jewish Art Exhibitions 
  • The Canadian Jewish Artist Experience 
  • Canadian Jewish Art and Education  
  • The Evolution of Canadian Jewish Art 
  • Jews and the Art Market in Canada 
  • Art and Religion in Canadian Jewish Life 
  • Transnational Connections among Jewish Art and Artists 
  • Comparative Studies of Jewish & Non-Jewish Canadian Art 
  • Comparative Studies of Canadian and Non-Canadian Jewish Art 

The journal welcomes contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to history and art history, literature, visual arts, anthropology, gender studies, religious studies, education, policy, and practitioner research. In addition to original articles that will undergo peer review, the journal also regularly solicits contributions for several non-peer-reviewed subsections: 

  • The Archives Matter: short essays on holdings in Jewish and non-Jewish Canadian archives organized around a central theme. 
  • Roundtables: scholarly and often interdisciplinary discussions featuring several voices and organized around a central theme. 
  • Translations: translations of historical or contemporary sources (broadly defined) dealing with the Canadian Jewish experience in languages other than English or French.  
  • Field Notes: non-standard academic writing on contemporary literary, cultural, intellectual, and communal events of interest relevant to the Canadian Jewish experience. More information about this section can be found here.  
  • Reflections: personal essays by academics or practitioners about their careers in the field.  

We welcome expressions of interest for all subsections—including roundtable topics and possible participants—that sit at the intersection of Art / Jews / Canada.    

In an effort to stimulate original, comparative, and intersectional research involving Canadian Jewish content and both non-Jewish CanCon and non-Canadian Jewish content, the journal welcomes submissions from researcher-author pairs committed to producing collaborative scholarship. The journal offers co-author collaboration grants of $500 in support of this work. Please note in your submission if you and your co-author seek consideration for this grant. More information can be found here. 

The journal is accepting expressions of interest for all sections until March 1, 2025. Accepted articles will be submitted for peer review by September 30, 2025. Deadlines for non-peer-reviewed contributions will be negotiated upon acceptance for publication.  

  • For original articles to be submitted for peer review, please include a tentative title, a short abstract (250 words), and a brief biography. The journal also accepts completed manuscripts in the range of 6,000 to 10,000 words, including endnotes.  
  • For submissions to one of our subsections, please include a short abstract (200 words) clearly stating the subject of the proposed reflection, translation, field note, etc., how it relates to the special volume, and why you are best positioned to explore it. 

Please refer to the journal’s policies and submission preparation checklist available on our website. Completed manuscripts that do not comply with our guidelines may be returned to authors. 

For inquiries and submissions, please contact the special volume editor Sara Angel (sangel@aci-iac.ca), the journal’s editor-in-chief David Koffman (koffman@yorku.ca), or its managing editor Joshua Tapper (jtapper@yorku.ca).  

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes is an open access, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal devoted to original scholarship that illuminates any and all aspects of the Canadian Jewish experience. It is published twice annually, in English and French, under the auspices of the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies / Association d’études juives canadiennes. The journal is freely accessible on our website.