The study of Canada post-2025: Continuity and ruptures
Next to its general call for manuscripts, the International Journal of Canadian Studies is seeking original submissions for its #65 special issue to be published in June 2027.
The International Journal of Canadian Studies is a long-running interdisciplinary journal dedicated to examining Canada from the fields of the arts, literature, geography, history, native studies, social and political sciences, supported by the International Council for Canadian Studies. The peer-reviewed bilingual journal is published by the University of Toronto Press. The Journal publishes articles under its varia and thematical sections.
This special issue welcomes original articles discussing the theme of “The study of Canada post-2025: Continuity and ruptures.”
More than fifty years ago, Thomas Symons (1975) released the Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies, which coined the importance of the study of Canada as a quest to self-knowledge. 2025 and 2026 were years of symposia and workshops looking back at the Symons report to understand how the study of Canada has evolved over the last half of a century (see CSZP 2025, 2026; LSCS 2026). During these reflections, many colleagues noted key differences between the two contexts, including the decoupling of Canadian Studies from a nation-building mission and the end of a unitary project. Whether framed as New Area Studies, Critical Canadian Studies, or even postcolonial Canadian Studies, many conceptual framings have been used to speak to a more decentered, transcultural, global and community-centred approach to the study of Canada (see Caldwell et al. 2013; Ertler and Mickiewicz 2007; Hodgett and James 2018; Moss 2003).
At the same time, 2025 and 2026 have been years dedicated to thinking through how the study of Canada can contribute to the country’s pressing geopolitical repositioning, notably in its relationship to long-standing allies like the United States and amid rising global tensions and instability (e.g., diplomatic conflicts, environmental emergencies, war, geopolitical interest in critical minerals and the Arctic). Whether because of the American taunts about annexation, tariff threats or Arctic expansionist plans, many individual Canadians and institutions have experienced what seems like an existential threat that has had no precedent in the previous century, as they struggle themselves to articulate the contemporary Canadian distinctive features among themselves and for the external world (see Baxter 2026; McMillan 2026; Wang 2025).
For the next issue of the International Journal of Canadian Studies, we invite empirical and theoretical contributions that speak to how Canada can be examined in continuity and in rupture from its framing 50 years ago, while acknowledging real-life changes in the country’s priorities and geopolitical positioning. How has the study of Canada changed or remain similar since it was framed as “to know ourselves” and how is this adage helpful to frame ongoing changes in the country’s place in the world? How can the study of Canada, from Canada or abroad, help Canadian society to question or reiterate the image and visage of Canada?
Bibliography
- J. Baxter. 2026. ‘An Existential Moment for Canada’: Economist on What Federal and N.S. Governments Should – and Shouldn’t – Do to Defend the Country from U.S. Threats. Halifax Examiner, 9 January. https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/world/canada/an-existential-moment-for-canada-economist-on-what-federal-and-n-s-governments-should-and-shouldnt-do-to-defend-the-country-from-u-s-threats/.
- Lynn Caldwell, Carrianne Leung and Darryl Leroux. 2013. Critical Inquiries: A Reader in Studies of Canada. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
- Canadian Studies at Zero Point (CSZP). 2025. The Symons Report at 50: Canadian Studies at Zero Point? [Conference]. 12–13 May. Western University, London. https://www.canadianstudiesatzeropoint.com/programme-1.
- Canadian Studies at Zero Point (CSZP). 2026. Rethinking Canadian Studies [Symposium]. 7–8 November. McMaster University, Hamilton.
- Klaus Ertler and Paulina Mickiewicz (eds). 2007. Transcultural Perspectives on Canada. Canadian Studies in Europe 7. Brno: Central European Association for Canadian Studies.
- Susan Hodgett and Patrick James (eds). 2018: Necessary Travel: New Area Studies and Canada in Comparative Perspective. London: Lexington Books.
- Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada (LCSC). 2026. Yet to Know Ourselves: Reimagining and Renewing Canadian Studies [Symposium]. 13 February. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo. https://studyofcanada.ca/events/conference/yet-to-know-ourselves/.
- McMillan, M. 2026. We Canadians are struggling to comprehend the bully next door. The Observer, 9 January. https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/we-canadians-are-struggling-to-comprehend-the-threat-from-the-bully-next-door.
- Laura Moss (ed.). 2003. Is Canada Postcolonial? Unsettling Canadian Literature. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
- Thomas H. B. Symons. 1975. To Know Ourselves: The Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies. Ottawa: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
- J. Wang. 2025. How Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada reveals tensions inherent in friendship. The Conversation, 25 March. https://theconversation.com/how-donald-trumps-trade-war-against-canada-reveals-tensions-inherent-in-friendship-252260.
Submissions
Submissions (6,000 to 8,000 words plus a summary in English and French) answering our thematic call for papers are welcome as well as other articles in connection with Canadian Studies in general from a range of disciplines and perspectives including, but not restricted to political studies, international relations literatures and the arts, history, native studies, sociology and anthropology.
Submissions in French or English can be uploaded on our portal by Thursday, 01 October 2026.
To prepare and submit your submission, follow the “Guideline for authors” on our website: https://utpjournals.press/journals/ijcs/submissions
Questions regarding the issue can be addressed to the Editor: Jean Michel Montsion: montsion[at]yorku.ca.
All articles will undergo double-blind peer review.