CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS 

CURRENTS NO. 9

SOLIDARITY - CONFLICT

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the ninth issue of CURRENTS: A Journal of Young English Philology Thought and Review. CURRENTS is an open access, peer-reviewed, yearly interdisciplinary journal, based in Toruń (Nicolaus Copernicus University), addressed to young researchers in the field of English studies.

The aim of Currents is to provide space for the exchange of thought among young English philology scholars. We are especially interested in contributions from students at master’s or doctoral level, but academics who have recently obtained a PhD or colleagues who would like to share the results of their BA research are encouraged to submit their proposals, too.

The central concern of the ninth issue of Currents is the theme of solidarity and conflict and its representations and manifestations in Anglophone literature, culture, and linguistics. Solidarity has played a crucial role in the history of humankind, forging social and political alliances, but also provoking disagreements and conflicts. As Rochelle DuFord states in Solidarity in Conflict (2022), “solidarity is both an agonistic and associational space. On the one hand, it is exclusionary and competitive with its outside. On the other hand, it is a space where people come to act together and participate in a common life, and where social freedom can appear”. Judith Butler sees solidarity as an important factor in building alliances in non-violent action, suggesting that “[w]e do not have to love one another to engage in meaningful solidarity”: the very fact that “[we] can always fall apart” encourages us to “struggle to stay together” (The Force of Non-violence, 2020). With these different ways of approaching solidarity and conflict, we hope to inspire further explorations into how these concepts have been discussed within English studies and how they have been addressed, represented and imagined in Anglophone literatures, cultures and languages.

We would like to encourage young scholars to send papers based on, but also not limited to, the following aspects of literary and cultural studies as well as (applied) linguistics:

• manifestations of conflict in literature and culture that have had unexpected consequences
• examples of solidarity depicted in literature and culture, including ones that have led to the destruction of community
• abolitionist and antiracist movements within the context of solidarity and conflict
• solidarity and its limits in intersectional feminism
• the question of “allyship”
• human – non-human/ more-than-human solidarities and/or conflicts
• (post-)colonial conflicts and solidarities
• armed conflict in Anglophone literature and culture
• linguistic expressions of solidarity
• conflicts over language
• conflicts in literary studies/linguistics that have resulted in the creation of innovative views

In addition to the solidarity-themed articles, we accept papers to be published in the general section of Currents, falling thematically into the general field of English studies, but unrelated to the issue’s main topic.

We also invite submissions to the review section. Reviews should preferably be devoted to publications relevant to the theme of the current issue and related to recent research in the field of English studies.

Articles accompanied by abstracts of 200-300 words and a short biographical note about the author (50-100 words) or reviews should be submitted to currentsjournalumk@gmail.com by March 15, 2023.

Suggested article length: 3,500—5,000 words.

Suggested review length: ca. 1500 words.

For author’s guidelines see “Instructions for authors”:

http://www.currents.umk.pl/instructions.html