Call for Papers: Special Issue, The Comparatist

Topic: Justice

General Editor: Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College)

We welcome contributions that examine the notion of justice in comparative studies and literary theory. Scenes of injustice surround us today. Might makes right appears to be returning with a vengeance. Or perhaps it never left. How do we mobilize the idea of justice in the face of atrocities and abuses of power? What is justice? Who can claim it? And who is or has been excluded from its appeal? When we evoke “social justice,” “economic justice,” or “racial justice,” for instance, are we really talking about the same thing? And, finally, which forms or deployments of justice do existing systems find less or more threatening? With an eye for justice’s multiple meanings, and the divergent circumstances under which it emerges, this volume will consider justice’s relevance and force in the world. Topics of interest could include:

Justice and the philosophical tradition

Justice and posthumanism

Environmental justice

Justice and violence

Justice and politics

Free Palestine 

Indigenous sovereignty and land back movements

Decolonization

Global Black Lives Matter 

United Nations and international law

Guilt and innocence

Just peace

Solidarities

Queer justice

Class struggle

Prison abolition

Restorative justice

Reparative justice

Interested contributors should submit a 1-page abstract by April 1, 2024 to zallouz@whitman.edu. Deadline for completed articles will be December 1, 2024.