Special issue: Arts-based research and artful approaches as Black homeplace
Black communities have historically leveraged the arts for knowledge production and intergenerational cultural transmission. Artful approaches have served as a way for Black artists, activist, and academics to “situate themselves in a world structured by anti-Blackness” (Raiford, 2024) and to imagine what is possible (hooks, 2008). Increasingly, Black researchers have sought to challenge dominant notions of what constitutes valid research, acknowledging that research aimed at creating meaningful change ought to honor our ways of knowing and being in the world. This commitment is evidenced in the burgeoning body of Canadian scholarship that examines the experiences of Black communities across a wide range of systemic and institutional settings. Fearon (2022, 2024), for example, explores how Black mothers in Canada reimagine learning opportunities for their children. Drawing on storytelling (particularly the African tradition of call and response), she integrates culturally rooted African practices into both the research process and its representation. Hassen (2025) employs photovoice to illuminate the lived experiences of Black residents navigating spatial inequities in Toronto’s urban greenspaces. Likewise, Edwards (2025) positions arts-informed methodology as a means of fostering identity, self-expression, and self-exploration among Black youth in Canada, affirming its value as an approach that decentralizes conventional research standards and processes. Collectively, these works underscore the transformative potential of arts-based research, demonstrating how artful approaches can function as Black homeplaces—sites of healing, renewal, and epistemological equity.
Submissions may include:
- Scholarly articles (5,000–7,500 words)
- Visual essays and photography that allow meaning making about Black lives and Black futurities
- Multimedia works accompanied by a 1,000-word contextual statement
- Performances or creative representations
- Poetic expressions and reflections on homeplace
- Examples of scholarly works that reimagine homeplace on digital platforms
Submissions Due April 30, 2026
For more details and how to submit, see the full call.
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