Sikh Research Journal: Call for Essays, Artistic Expression, Interviews, and Research on Queerness and Transness in the Study of Sikh Life and Sikhi!
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Sikh Research Journal (SRJ) facilitates new and ongoing academic discussions, conversations, and debates on the study of Sikhs and Sikhi between scholars, Sikh community members, and academic and non-academic experts. For this specific call, we are asking for contributions that begin, continue, and extend conversations between studies of queerness, transness, Sikhs, and Sikhi. While we are focused on receiving submissions for our Spring 2025 issue (and beyond), if authors have materials prepared sooner, submissions will be accepted for the fall 2024 issue.
These are not new conversations. Activists, scholars, and/or community members have increasingly been engaging these topics in different ways over the past few years. Sikh academics have spearheaded some of these conversations, bringing together analyses of masculinity, terrorism, and homonationalism to reconsider inclusion under conditions of imperialism (Puar, 2017). Researchers have produced descriptive analyses of Sikh youth’s attitudes towards diverse sexual identities in Malaysia, where a pluri-religious context reveals a different set of conditions to navigate for LGBTQIA+ inclusion (Kaur & Kaur, 2020). Similarly, community scholars, members, and activists have written essays on casteism and queerphobia in Sikh spaces (manmit & Manu, 2021) and read Sikhi and transness together (singh, 2024). Organizations are also mobilizing for action across the Sikh diaspora, both under the identity of Sikhs, specifically, and South Asian, more broadly: identity-based support organizations have emerged (Sher Vancouver in Canada, Sarbat and the Open Minds Project/The Suryan Collective in the UK, the Human Rights Commission within the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation), while other organizational organizing has broadened to explicitly include LGBTQIA+ inclusion (Panjab Feminist Union of Students). For instance, Sikh institutions have fielded online surveys to conduct nuanced analyses between Gurbani and lived practice when it comes to sex and sexuality (Sikh Research Institute, 2020) and supported the creation of the Sikh LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project in the U.S. (Sikh LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project, 2023). This is only a brief overview of what is known and what has been publicly shared.
We invite essays, artistic expression, interview or roundtables, and research on these topics and more. We are particularly interested in contributions that provide pathways, frameworks, and analyses for better understanding how cisheterosexism, misogyny, transmisogyny, and casteism operate in social life. We hope that these discussions expand the current literature on all areas of Sikh and Punjabi Studies, including (but not limited to) art, architecture, contemporary societal topics, culture, heritage, history, language, literature, methodologies, philosophy, and/or religion. You do not need an advanced degree (e.g., B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) in order to submit work to the SRJ, because submissions will be evaluated through peer-review processes and held to an expectation of ethical citational practice.
Sikh Research Journal considers only original, previously unpublished research, scholarship, and/or commentary. These can come in the form of “traditional” academic articles, personal essays with clear arguments, or shorter meditations that engage Sikh Studies and/or Sikhi. Manuscripts submitted to SRJ for review should not be concurrently under consideration with another journal or outlet. As original contributions, authors ensure that their contributions are their work, are not plagiarized, and are not produced through any technology (e.g., artificial intelligence, ChaGPT, etc.); if such technologies are part of the data methodology, they should be cited as such and discussed appropriately for the study/contribution.
Submission Guidelines
All authors must submit their work through the online portal on SRJ’s website. As part of your submission package, please include
- A cover letter that provides (a) a brief overview of the contribution’s major significance and (b) a list of 2-4 potential reviewers. Both factors will be used to help the editors identify relevant subject experts for review.
- One document titled “Main Manuscript” that includes only the title, text, and table or figures of your contribution, and a separate document, titled “References”, that includes only the references.
- Prepare keywords that you will add in the portal (4-6 keywords)
- A short (200-300 word) abstract that you will add in the portal
- For traditional research articles, please format your submissions to APA (American Psychological Association, 7th edition), Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spaced, and no more than 12,000 words including all citations, tables, figures, and appendices. You may consult our full style guide online. If you are submitting a creative piece, you will be expected to generally follow the APA guidelines, but feel free to reach out to the Editors to inquire about what type of formatting to expect for your submission if you have questions.
2024-2025 Submission Timeline
Those interested in the Spring 2025 issue can submit via the new submission portal on the website by November 15, 2024. For those interested in contributing to the Fall 2024 issue, we recommend submitting as soon as possible, ideally before October 15, 2024. If authors have not already done so, they will need to make an account to submit their work.
All manuscripts submitted to SRJ will initially be screened by the SRJ editors, and those selected to be potentially publishable will be sent for external peer-review. Generally, both the reviewer and author will remain anonymous to each other as per traditional peer-review models. For newer authors and willing reviewers, we will attempt to facilitate a guided revision process where the reviewer and author work together to complete the publication. In select cases, the editors can also offer close editorial guidance to potential authors.
We welcome papers from any discipline or area of expertise that touches on a relevant topic on the study of Sikhs and Sikhi from a historic or contemporary perspective. With two general issues that SRJ publishes each calendar year, our hope is for the papers to contribute to or move beyond existing literatures in Sikh studies. More broadly, papers can engage with any of the following topics with which SRJ engages:
- Meditations and original research on questions, approaches, or methodologies that explore the histories of racism, cisheterosexism, colonialism, and decolonialism in the lives of Sikhs and the development of Sikhi.
- Original research (historical, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed or multiple methods) that engages with existing conversations in Sikh studies or provides a prompt or potential roadmap to new areas of research.
- Research on Sikhs’ engagement with Gurbaani in the context of their own individual lives, their activism, or the community spaces.
- Essays discussing contemporary community issues in Punjab and/or the diaspora (broadly defined, not centered on Western diaspora only).
- Artistic meditations or knowledge products on Sikh embodiment or praxis, such as (but not limited to) Gurmat sangeet traditions or Sikh visual art traditions.
- Book reviews on recent publications (2021-2024) that are relevant to or within Sikh studies. If accepted, submissions will be coordinated by SRJ’s book review editor.
CALL FOR REVIEWERS
We are also currently expanding our team of reviewers. If you are interested and willing to serve as a reviewer for the Sikh Research Journal, please send the following information to the editors Drs. Harleen Kaur and prabhdeep singh kehal:
- Name as you would like to be referred and English pronouns
- Relevant fields of expertise and disciplinary training (e.g., activist experience and/or field of advanced study)
- Relevant topics you are comfortable reviewing in relation to the study of Sikhs and Sikhi (e.g., gender and sexuality, casteism, racism and colonialism, period and geography of historical research, hermeneutics, culture, qualitative/quantitative methodologies)
- Preference for how you would like to review: either or both double-anonymous and guided revision process (see paragraph 2 under “2024 Submission Timeline”)
Citations
Sikh Research Institute. (2020). Sikhi & Sexuality (6; State of the Panth). Sikh Research Institute.