CALL FOR PAPERS
SPECIAL ISSUE (Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2017)
FAITH AND ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP
IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Guest Editors:
Christopher Hrynkow, Rich Janzen, Alisha Pomazon
Despite the prominence of the “secularization thesis” among academics prior to the turn of the millennium,
religion is not in decline worldwide. The Pew Research Center’s (2015) estimates show that until at least 2050 the
number of people practicing a religion is expected to grow globally. What is more, since the events of 9/11 the
"functional secularism" discourse that is based on liberal materialism and that has dominated decision making in
Western societies for the past half century is increasingly being challenged. While the precise place of religion
within society still remains contested, even controversial, a new “postsecularism” seems to be emerging in which
matters of faith are excluded less, and where people representing diverse religious traditions are invited to shape
an increasingly pluralistic society.
In light of this context, we invite contributions from community and university based researchers, teachers, and
scholars who actively and purposefully participate in community-engaged research that is faith-based.
Community Engaged Research is understood to be community situated, collaborative, and action-oriented such
that the research process and results are useful to community members in making positive societal changes. In
this special issue we will profile a number of community-engaged research projects which explore and reconceive
the place of faith within society and/or the role of religious actors in positive social change. We invite
submissions from a variety of religious traditions (including inter-faith perspectives) and from scholars engaging
with diverse global perspectives.
We are seeking the following submissions: essays; research reports; conference papers, reports on research in
progress; audio, artistic or visual outcomes of research; book reviews (by invitation from the
Journal). Community-engaged research topics for you to consider include those in which religious faith and actors
inform the content of inquiry, the process of inquiry, or both.
Faith informed content
• explorations of the meaning(s) and theory(ies) of faith-informed research (discipline specific or
interdisciplinary)
• the role of faith communities in contributing to the common good and social equity
• the dynamics of faith in informing social innovation
• the intersection of empirically-generated knowledge with spiritual wisdom and discernment
Faith informed process
• history and trends of community-engaged research within faith settings
• the benefits and challenges of participatory and action-oriented research within a faith context
• exemplars in the co-production and co-mobilization of faith-based knowledge
• epistemological reflections on what constitutes faith-based evidence and/or excellence in faith-based
research
• evaluating the impact of faith-based research and religious actors in processes of positive social change
To ensure the Journal secures the right and best peers to review your work, please first submit to us your short
paper proposal (250 words) and bio (250 words) by Thursday, March 31, 2016. Your proposal needs to
identify the focus and content of your prospective paper, the disciplinary training of the authors, the section of the
Journal you are submitting to (for peer-reviewed or editor-reviewed section), and whether you will have
additional visual or audio material that you would like to include in your submission.
Please submit your paper by Friday, June 24, 2016. All submissions will undergo editorial or blind peer review.
Submissions for the Essays Section of the Journal will be subject to blind peer review, submissions to other
Journal sections will undergo editorial review.
Essays (maximum 8,000 words) that will be subject to blind peer reviewing should:
• Represent original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by other journals or collections of
essays
• Written in accessible language, to respect multidisciplinary nature of the Journal and the diversity of our
readers
• Include an abstract (200 words) and indicate up to five keywords
• Be typed, double-spaced throughout, in 12-pt Times New Roman font
• Be formatted in the American Psycholog5cal Association (APA) style, 6th edition
• Have a separate cover page that includes the names, institutional affiliations, addresses, and contact
information of all authors
• Include author biography/ies (no more than 50 words per author) on a separate sheet
• Indicate that appropriate Institutional Research Ethics Board approval was secured, if applicable
• Be formatted and saved in Microsoft Word (no PDF please)
• Be submitted in two versions, one should include all information to be published, and in the other copy
information to be ‘blinded’ should be substituted with blank underlined spaces. Information to be ‘blinded’
includes all text or data that will have to be removed from the essay for blind peer review purposes
Please submit via email to engaged.scholar@usask.ca.
Deadline for proposals:
Deadline for all contributions:
Projected date of publication:
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
Spring 2017
For submission guidelines consult http://esj.usask.ca/index.php/esj/information/authors, or talk to us at:
Engaged Scholar Journal:
Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Learning
Natalia Khanenko-Friesen, Editor
Penelope Sanz, Managing Assistant
University of Saskatchewan
Room 313 Thorvaldson Building
110 Science Place
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C9 CANADA
Tel. No.: +1306-966-2665
Fax. No.: +1306-966-5571
Email: engaged.scholar@usask.ca
http://esj.usask.ca/index.php/esj/index