Guest Editors: Dr. Eric Fure-Slocum, St. Olaf College, furesloc@stolaf.edu, Dr. Cristina Băniceru, West University of Timisoara, cristina.baniceru@e-uvt.ro, Dr. Loredana Bercuci, West University of Timisoara, loredana.bercuci@e-uvt.ro

In recent years, a global pandemic, climate change, clashes between democratic and illiberal social movements, and unprecedented armed conflicts have prompted reactions to crises from all fields. Various crises have evidenced the need for community building globally, but especially in the United States.  The importance of crisis-related analyses is reflected in a renewed interest in the topic. Crisis is seen as “a category denoting a moment of truth” (Roitman 3), or as a conceptual rupture. Scholars like Roitman believe that crises are implicitly produced by norms, against which they coagulate, and consequently create the potential for change or progress (cf. Diner 2000, Klein 2007, Meiner & Veel 2012). Others (Berlant 2011, Nixon 2011, Knowles 2016) see the present as an impasse, characterized by the parallel normalization of crisis and weakening of consensus and, thus, by defeatist politics.

As members and collaborators of the American Studies Center Timisoara, we have become increasingly aware of and intrigued by this phenomenon. Therefore, for this issue, we welcome articles on several types of discourse (literary, media, art, institutional, academic, etc.) on crises that inherently hold the potential to create, maintain and reflect social coherence and agency, or may, at least, raise awareness and solidarity. We also welcome articles about pedagogical approaches and organizing strategies that respond to crises, especially those approaches that enable students and faculty to confront, analyze, and act in response to crises. Higher education and academic freedom are under political and economic attack, evident especially in Florida’s restrictions on teaching about race and sexuality or ever-tighter cost constraints that result in humanities program cuts and the growing ranks of contingent faculty. American Studies programs and faculty find themselves at the center of these and related controversies. Such crises call for innovative practices in the classroom that build reflective learning communities and initiatives that traverse the walls between the academy and society (e.g., academic civic engagement and service-learning projects; public scholarship). In other cases, teachers and scholars act collectively, through disciplinary and professional organizations and through labor unions, some of which strive to build bridges to broader social movements that have risen in response to contemporary crises.  

Potential topics:

• crisis in American literature
• teaching crisis in American Studies
• teaching and community building in times of crisis
• pedagogical innovations responding to crisis
• scholar activism against crisis
• public scholarship and crisis
• media representations of crisis and calls to action
• museums and archives focusing on crisis
• representation of crisis in American pop culture
• writing and research for activism and community building in times of crisis
• organizing academic workers in a time of crisis
• other crisis-related topics in American Studies

Articles will be subject to a blind peer reviewing process and must not be under consideration for any other publications. Please refer to the author submission guidelines on the American, British and Canadian Studies Journal website, http://abcjournal.eu/. Abstracts (300 words, inlcuding title and bibliography), along with a 200-word biographical note should be sent to american.studies@e-uvt.ro by October 25, 2023. Any inquiries about the special issue and manuscripts (word limit: 8500 words, including a 200-word abstract, 7 keywords, and bibliography, due January 31, 2024) are to be directed to the same email address.

Guidelines for Contributors

American, British and Canadian Studies seeks quality submissions of work in the entire spectrum of the humanities. The review process is blind: articles are sent out to subject specialists for reviewing anonymously and we leave it up to the reviewers to choose whether or not to reveal themselves to you. Decisions on articles submitted are normally made within three months. You are strongly encouraged to submit exciting and broad-ranging original articles that have not been published elsewhere, nor are currently under review in any other refereed journal. We regret we are unable to accept multiple submissions. You may submit papers that have been presented in conferences only if the papers have been thoroughly revised or extended to engage a theme that fits the ABC Studies profile.

A chief objective of the journal is to minimise the time for paper processing and to expedite printing; therefore, electronic submission of papers in final form is strongly recommended. Please email your contribution to abc.journal@ulbsibiu.ro before the closing date.

The word limit for scholarly articles is 8500 words.

The word limit for creative pieces is 3000 words.

The word limit for reviews is 1000 words.

The first page of the manuscript should carry the title, author’s name, institutional affiliation, a 150-word biographical note for our Notes on Contributors, along with contact information. The article/piece must include a 200-word abstract, and 7-10 key words/concepts, and must conform to MLA referencing (9th Edition).

For detailed instructions for preparing your contribution and a sense of format, topics of interest to us and targeted audience, you may wish to consult the journal’s previous issues and style files at http://abcjournal.eu/and https://sciendo.com/journal/ABCSJ. Only articles styled in compliance with the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook and our Submission Guidelines posted on the journal websites will be considered. Please email us if you have any queries. Questions about content should be directed to karina.schneider@ulbsibiu.ro.

Deadlines for Submissions: American, British and Canadian Studies is published biannually in June and December. The deadlines for submission of contributions are typically 1 February for the summer edition (expected publication: 15 June) and 1 August for the winter edition (expected publication: 15 December), but may differ for special issues.