In the current reality of the post-pandemic Covid-19 world, the health, climate, economic and military crises, forced migration, neocolonialism and horrific wars, many people are reported to have suffered from post-traumatic stress. With its past and current wounds and traumas, the world appears to be a place that needs urgent healing. The concepts of care, including self-care, and well-being of others and oneself, which are central for many cultures, turned out to be important keywords of our time. We propose a discussion on these concepts with a specific focus on Indigenous, Black, Eastern European and other diasporic perspectives to be examined in the context of the mainstream settler culture of English-speaking and French-speaking Canada.

As part of the English issue of the journal Romanica Silesiana (No. 2/2026), we propose a discussion on the concepts of healing, well-being, and care in Canada, with a special focus on Indigenous, Black, Eastern European and other diasporic perspectives. We especially invite analyses that are attuned to the labor of care as expressed differently across specific minority histories and geographies in English-speaking and French-speaking Canada. Interdisciplinary perspectives are highly encouraged. We also welcome submissions from graduate students at any stage of their research. 

The following list of suggested topics should be regarded as neither exhaustive nor prescriptive: 

• interpretation of literature, theatre, culture, history, politics and other discourses through the lens of care and carework;
• explorations of care and carework in conversation with Indigenous studies, Black feminist thought, critical race studies, disability studies, queer theory, ecocriticism, and animal studies (among other frameworks);
• pedagogies of care as a challenge to anthropogenic climate change;
• care for the environment, care for communities and nations, care for others and self-care; 
• politics of care;
• concept of well-being, healing and care in various cultures within Canada;
• Canadian policies of reconciliation as a possible politics of care;
• Canadian strategies of care related to diverse minority cultures;
• Canadian health care and discrimination – historical perspectives; 
• historical variations in national politics and strategies of care;
• processes of healing via artivism (artistic activism);
• history as a source of trauma and lack of care;
• impact of colonial carelessness on culture, language, geography and environment – in the context of Indigenous, Black and Eastern European and other diasporic perspectives;
• ideologies of racism and their counterpart as caring for others;
• Indigenous perspectives on healing, well-being and care;
• Black perspectives on healing, well-being and care;
• Eastern European and other diasporic perspectives on healing, well-being and care;
• comparative reflections on healing, well-being and care in the mainstream settler Canadian and Indigenous, Black, Eastern European and other diasporic cultures.

300–400-word proposals with short bios in English should be submitted by 24 November 2025 to BOTH justyna.jajszczok@us.edu.pl and r.madeja@us.edu.pl

For stylesheet details, please visit https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/RS/about/submissions

Important dates:

24 November 2025: proposal submission deadline

30 November 2025: notification of acceptance

15 February 2026: article submission deadline

March 2026: double-blind evaluations

Justyna Jajszczok and Rafał Madeja, editors

Faculty of Humanities, Institute of Literary Studies
University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland)