Call for Papers: Symposium and Special Issue of the Journal of New Brunswick Studies

Call for Papers: Symposium and Special Issue of the Journal of New Brunswick Studies

Abortion Pathways and Abortion Obstacles: Accessing Reproductive Healthcare in the Maritime
Provinces

Overview:
Against the backdrop of the lawsuit brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association against the Government of New Brunswick and the overturn of Roe v Wade, this special issue will showcase the research of abortion scholars working on New Brunswick and the Maritimes. The pieces included in the special issue will emerge from a symposium. It will foreground New Brunswick and will reflect on the history of abortion and abortion law in the Maritimes, consider methodological and strategic challenges in abortion research, analyze and compare the progress and setbacks achieved in Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick and imagine new futures of pro-choice abortion advocacy in the Maritimes. Collectively, this work will provide stakeholders and policymakers with an accurate, up-to-date picture of abortion access barriers and an interdisciplinary and methodologically sophisticated body of work that shows how they can be overcome. This work will consider all types of abortions including procedural (surgical)
and medical abortions.

The article length contributions to the special issue will be workshopped at a one-day symposium that will take place in Fredericton, NB on May 27th, 2024. Some funding support for travel is available. The symposium will bring together academic and community researchers, service providers, advocates, policy analysts, lawyers, and activists who work on issues of reproductive healthcare in the Maritime provinces to discuss an interdisciplinary set of papers on the state of abortion access in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. While we welcome papers from across the Maritimes in French or English, we do ask that papers consider, at least in some way, the specific situation in New Brunswick and we especially encourage papers that take up the situation in New Brunswick.

We welcome submissions on the following topics, as well as others:  

● Legal, informational and/or practical barriers to abortion access
● Pro-choice activism
● Abortion history in the Maritime provinces
● The role and scope of medical abortions (Mifegymiso)                                                             ● Data gaps in abortion knowledge
● The impact of religious and cultural norms on abortion access/provisioning
● Abortion, reproductive healthcare and Indigenous Peoples
● Abortion, reproductive healthcare, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities
● Abortion, reproductive healthcare, and Francophone populations
● Abortion, reproductive healthcare, and racism
● Hospitals, clinics, and other sites of abortion care
● Rural/urban and other issues of geography
● Imagining futures with local, certain, free and inclusive abortion care

We ask that all submissions be cited using MLA (7th Edition). To read more about Style
Guidelines see here: https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JNBS/about/submissions
Abstracts:

For an article length piece (6,000-8,000 words - up to 10,000 words French) for the special issue and symposium please submit an abstract no more than 300 words with all author names and bios at: abortionissue@gmail.com, please cc editorjnbs@stu.ca. Please include: Special Issue Submission in the subject line.

Please indicate if you are traveling from out of town and require financial support to attend the symposium (e.g. airfare, accommodations, mileage etc.). Funding is provided through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

We also welcome research notes (2,500 words) and reviews (500-2,500 words) but authors of these materials will not be invited to present at the symposium. If you wish to submit a research note or review, please do so no later than July 15th, 2024 to abortionissue@gmail.com, please cc editorjnbs@stu.ca. Please include: Special Issue Submission in the subject line.

Timeline for Articles and Symposium:

Abstracts due: Feb 1st, 2024
Notice of decision: Feb. 15th, 2024
Draft paper due: May 15th, 2024
Symposium: May 27th, 2024
Revised paper for peer-review: July 15th, 2024
Peer-review: July -December 2024
Publication date: Spring 2025