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Dalhousie University, Halifax, May 30-June 1, 2027

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The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies is pleased to announce that its 2027 annual national conference will take place at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, from Sunday, May 30 through Tuesday, June 1, 2027.

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The ACJS’s 2027 gathering, in collaboration with Dalhousie’s Centre for Jewish Studies, marks the organization’s return to Atlantic Canada for the first time in nearly two decades. Building on the Centre’s year-long programmatic focus on intercommunal bridge-building, our 2027 conference will be organized around the theme of “Contacts.” 

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We invite proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables that interrogate that theme in a broad way. Pertinent topics include, but are not necessarily limited to:

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• Encounter and exchange between Jewish and non-Jewish ethnic, religious, and diasporic communities in Canada.

• Migration and mobility, including the interaction of people, ideas, texts, objects, and cultural practices across time and space.

• Intracommunal contact within Canadian Jewry across religious, linguistic, ideological, generational, sub-ethnic, and geographical lines.

• Cooperation and conflict, including competition, coalition-building, solidarity, disagreement, fracture, and negotiation within and beyond Canadian Jewish communities.

• Places and spaces of social, religious, educational, and commercial Jewish and intercommunal/interethnic encounter in Canada, as well as real or imagined Jewish relationship to the Canadian landscape, climate, and natural environment.

• Material culture and objects, such as food, ritual objects, photographs, archives, and other things that connect Canadian Jews and their neighbours across time and space.

• Borders, boundaries, and belonging, including questions of inclusion and exclusion, citizenship, home, diaspora, identity, and the relationship between the “idea of Jewish Canada” and Canadian civic values and ideals.

• Urban, rural, and regional encounters specific to Jews in Atlantic Canada, western Canada, the North, and elsewhere, including Canada’s major Jewish population centres.

 

We are especially interested in proposals that explore the Maritime Jewish experience, including migration and settlement in pre- and post-Confederation Canada, as well as related themes such as port economies and Jewish commercial and familial networks across the Atlantic World.

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We invite submissions from faculty, students, independent scholars, community professionals, artists, and others interested in the study of the Canadian Jewish experience across multiple disciplines, including history, literature, sociology, anthropology, political science, religion, and beyond. The conference welcomes submissions in English and French on any topic relating to Canada’s Jews. We invite three types of proposals:

 

Individual papers: We accept proposals for paper presentations of 15 minutes in length. All submissions must include (1) an abstract of 200-300 words formulated to clearly and concisely state the main argument of the presentation and indicate how it will contribute to existing scholarship in the field of Canadian Jewish studies, including a short bibliography of relevant sources; and (2) a biography of 50-75 words.

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Panels: We also invite proposals for fully formed panels of 3-4 presentations (each 15 minutes in length). Panel proposals must include (1) an abstract of 300-400 words describing the panel’s agenda and concisely stating the argument or approach of each presentation; and (2) biographies of 50-75 words for each panelist. Proposals should be submitted by the panel organizer. Along with the abstract, please include the title of the panel, the titles of each presentation, and names, affiliations, and contact details for each presenter.

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Roundtables: This year we are accepting proposals for roundtables: scholarly discussions featuring several voices and organized around a central theme. Unlike a panel, which features discrete paper presentations, a roundtable is an interactive dialogue shared between presenters and audience members. Roundtables might address new directions in the field or take up matters of communal concern from an academic perspective. Proposals must include (1) an abstract of 300-400 words articulating the issues under discussion and the distinct perspectives brought by roundtable participants; (2) biographies of 50-75 words for each participant. Proposals should be submitted by the roundtable organizer. Along with the abstract, please include the title of the roundtable and each participant’s name, affiliation, and contact details.

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All participants accepted to present must be paid members of the ACJS to secure their spot on the conference program. Further information about registration fees, accommodations, and the wider program will be shared in early 2027.

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The ACJS is able to offer a limited number of travel stipends for students only. Requests for stipends will be assessed on a first-come, first-served basis.

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​​​Proposals are due by January 8, 2027. All proposals will be anonymously peer-reviewed. Decisions will be communicated by January 29, 2027. For more information, please write to conference organizers at conference@canadianjewishstudies.ca.