Call for Papers: Inuit Urbanities

2024-10-31

Guest Editors: Mark Watson (Concordia University), Richard Budgell (McGill University), and Christopher Fletcher (Université Laval)

The journal Études Inuit Studies invites submissions for a special issue on “Inuit Urbanities.” This issue aims to update research first explored in the issue on “Urban Inuit/Inuit urbains” in 2008. Since that initial publication, the number of Inuit living outside of traditional homelands has risen dramatically. In Canada, roughly one third of Inuit now live outside of Inuit Nunangat (Statistics Canada 2023). While recent research demonstrates that issues such as housing, access to health care, education, and employment opportunities in urban areas remain critical areas of concern, common stories of resilience and innovation within urban Inuit communities are challenging and reworking narratives of urban life. The establishment of city cultural centers, urban Inuit organizations, and community-driven initiatives from St. John’s to Vancouver (or Copenhagen to Anchorage) as well as thriving art, music and student scenes today highlight the strength and adaptability of Inuit in urban settings.

For this special issue, we welcome submissions that look at the historical but also changing face of Inuit life in urban areas and cities across the global Arctic. At the same time, we want to use this opportunity to explore new perspectives by encouraging prospective authors to also contest, contrast and rethink the current idea and future character of ‘urban’ in Inuit life. To this end, we welcome work on a wide variety of topics and themes and invite authors to explore understudied aspects of urbanism: from emerging Arctic Indigenous urbanism (including different visions of expanded community planning in the North) and educational mobilities to the transregional networks of Inuit healthcare (and their histories) and the mapping of north-south mobility routes (of not only people but also art/artists, cultural materials, language activism, data, ideas, policy and so on).

We welcome submission of articles, research notes, literature reviews and proposals for creative essays (including interviews with key community actors) or artistic reflections (see journal guidelines for more information: https://revues.ulaval.ca/ojs/index.php/etudes-inuit-studies/index ).

In response to the rationale above, we invite authors to propose topics that shed more light on the evolving dynamics of Inuit urbanities. To this end, we aim to create an issue that helps foster and invigorate better informed and more meaningful if also nuanced discussions about the role of the ‘urban’ – however authors choose to define it – in Inuit futures. Submissions in English, French and Inuit languages and dialects are welcome.

Manuscripts submission by May 15, 2025: https://revues.ulaval.ca/ojs/index.php/etudes-inuit-studies/about/submissions All submissions will be peer reviewed and authors will receive an evaluation report.

Publication planned for Fall 2026

  • Please submit a 250-word abstract to the guest editors (see contact info below). Constructive feedback on initial abstracts and ideas will be provided by the volume editors upon request. We welcome receiving inquiries ahead of time to discuss and develop potential ideas.
  • Contact: Mark Watson (watson@concordia.ca), Richard Budgell (richard.budgell@mcgill.ca), and Christopher Fletcher (christopher.fletcher@fmed.ulaval.ca).