Call for papers

Journal of Resistance Studies is published in June and December and accept papers continuously all year round. Texts up to 12 000 words in total, with a clear resistance relevance and not submitted to other publications are most welcome.

The European Peace Research Association, in cooperation with the Journal of Resistance Studies (JRS), is calling for submissions of proposals for a special issue entitled “Arts, Peace and Resistance”, devoted to the exploration of practices of resistance and peace through arts.

What do we mean by arts? We consider all kinds of art forms, for example, visual art, photography, videography, dance, music, theatre, circus, or digital art. Arts provide powerful tools of resistance: they can take the form of direct action; offer a means of everyday resistance practise, as well as be a conduit for exploring and enacting alternative practises as a form of constructive resistance. In this manner, the structural violence afflicting societies can be contested.

At the 2022 EuPRA conference, several panels and workshops explored interdisciplinary methods and approaches to peace, emerging concepts in peacebuilding and their transformative power, particularly in light of dominant discourses and current challenges.

Such panels and workshops showcased the emerging (and flourishing) production of arts-based research projects related to resistance and peace. During the conference we also learned the potential of arts-based practices in dismantling and deconstructing academic knowledge and hierarchies in peace research while promoting co-production of knowledge. However, we are conscious of the need to re-establish the connections and dialogue between scholars of peace and resistance, as well as peace and resistance practitioners and activists. Building on the conference, it is anticipated that this special issue will help to strengthen such dialogue.

Those papers exploring marginalized perspectives and the experiences of minorities will be particularly welcome, as such voices have been neglected and silenced from the mainstream narratives. Additionally, articles adopting an intersectional approach, looking at how different categories–such as gender, sexuality, able-bodiness, age, ethnicity and class–interact with each other and create inequalities, discriminations and oppressions, are welcome.  

We are calling for contributions which, in addition to the perspectives mentioned, may be concerned with various aspects of arts and resistance, including but not limited to:

• Practices of using arts for resistance, peacebuilding, peace education;
• Arts as a constructive resistance practise;
• Arts as an everyday resistance practise;
• Historical views on the use of arts in peace building, activism, resistance, peace education;
• Specific, concrete examples of groups and/or communities who have applied and done arts as a means of protesting, resisting and/or preserving local/native heritage, both in cultural and in social terms;
• Arts and feminist resistance practices;
• Indigenous practises of art and resistance;
• State/regime responses to art as a resistance and peace practise;
• Country-specific analyses or comparisons of art as a resistance and peace practise;
• Transnational perspectives of arts as a resistance and peace practise;
• Activist-academic accounts of arts as a resistance and peace practise.

Proposals for articles should be for original work in English that has not been submitted to other publications, and not exceeding 500-750 words/ 3000 characters (references not included). Authors should also include a brief academic profile and a list of their main publications.

It is advisable to read the JRS’s Policy Statement to increase your possibility of being selected for publication. Articles should have a clear resistance focus. 

Articles will be subject to a double-blind peer review process, with the final decision about publication being taken following the completion of that process, in this case by 30 June 2023. The publication decision will ultimately be decided by the guest editors and ordinary editors of the JRS.

If your article submission is not included in the special issue, it may be considered for publication in other issues of the JRS.

They should be addressed to the editors of the issue: Ilaria Tucci [email protected], Sabeth Kessler [email protected], Craig S. Brown [email protected]

Important Dates

Abstracts by: 15 December 2022

Notification of acceptance: 10 January 2023

Submission of final papers: 15 April 2023

Peer reviewed comments returned to author(s): 30 June 2023

Final deadline for changes by author(s): 30 August 2023

Please note: final texts may be up to 12 000 words length.