Publications

ARC

ARC is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published annually by the School of Religious Studies, McGill University. Founded in 1973, the journal was restructured in 1990 into a formal scholarly journal. ARC combines the talents of professors and graduate students in offering space for scholarly discussions on various aspects of the academic study of religion — including method and theory in the study of religion — with focus in the following areas: philosophy of religion; social ethics; history of religion; comparative religion; studies of sacred texts; theology and inter-religious dialogue. ARC has an international circulation, including Canada, the United States, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

ARC incorporates Religious Traditions: A Journal in the Study of Religion (ISSN 0156–1650), first published in 1978 with Ian Kesarcodi-Watson (1938–84) and Arvind Sharma as its founding editors.

ARC is indexed in Religion Index One: Periodicals, published by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), and is part of the ATLA Database available online at www.atla.com. ARC is also indexed in the Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature, the International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, the International Bibliography of Book Reviews, and Religious and Theological Abstracts.

Call for papers

Call for Papers: “Looking Backward – Looking Forward”

The editors of ARC: Journal of the School of Religious Studies are pleased to announce a call for papers and book reviews for our forthcoming volume (Vol. 50). As the 50th anniversary of the journal presents a unique opportunity to think both retrospectively and prospectively, ARC is asking for submissions that engage with the theme of looking backward – looking forward.

Transformations and interventions in theory, method, and practice, along with evolving and shifting dimensions of social, political, and cultural life, have marked both the study and experience of religion since ARC’s founding in 1973. ARC’s archives provide a rich sense both of past concerns, and of the imagined futures they shaped. We are inspired by the impulse of Joseph C. McLelland, the editor and Dean of the McGill School of Religious Studies at the time of the 1978 issue, to locate the scope and demands of the study of religion within the “present imperative; future conditional.” How, for example, does past scholarship frame current analysis; and how, likewise, might we re-imagine the possibility of future analysis via an intervention into those past conversations? We welcome reflections on the past, the future, and/or their generative possibilities for the present.

The theme of looking forward — looking backward resonates across diverse and interdisciplinary interactions with religion. Submissions are welcome from any area within the study of religion, including: Theology; Comparative Religions; Theory and Method; Philosophy of Religion; History of Religions; Sociology of Religion; Anthropology of Religion; Psychology of Religion; Religious Ethics; Critical Race Theory; Religion and Literature; Religion and Art; Religion and Linguistics; Religion and Health; Textual Studies. Submissions may focus on traditions from any time period or geographic area. General submissions that do not engage with the theme are also accepted.

The submission deadline for Vol. 50 is 31 August, 2022. Submissions received after this date may be considered for subsequent volumes. Articles should fall between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including footnotes. Longer items may be considered, but should be discussed with the journal editors prior to submission. Book reviews should not exceed 1,500 words. For detailed submission guidelines, please consult the Guidelines for Contributors (PDF) on our website (https://www.mcgill.ca/religiousstudies/research/publications). All electronic correspondence should be sent to the editors at the following email address: arc.relgstud [at] mcgill.ca

ARC is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published annually by the School of Religious Studies, McGill University. The journal combines the talents of professors and graduate students in offering space for scholarly discussions on various aspects of the academic study of religion.

Guidelines for Contributors

Scope

ARC is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published annually by the School of Religious Studies, McGill University. The journal combines the talents of professors and graduate students in offering space for scholarly discussions on various aspects of the academic study of religion.

We invite innovative and original work that engages with: theology; comparative studies in religion; theoretical or methodological discussions; thoughts, ideologies and philosophies; religion and politics; philosophy of religion; history of religions; sociology of religion; role of religion in culture and society; religious ethics; religion and literature; religion and art; religion and linguistics; religion and health; inter-religious studies.

ARC encourages submissions from diverse religious traditions, perspectives, and periods.

Format

ARC considers two kinds of submissions:

  1. Articles.
    Article submissions should provide original contributions to any of the areas suggested in the journal’s scope / the most recent call for papers. Articles should fall between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including footnotes. Longer items may be considered, but should be discussed with the journal editors prior to submission. We do not accept submissions that have been published in full or in part elsewhere, and you must affirm that your submission is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

  2. Book Reviews.
    Book review submissions should address recently published works that fall within the interests of the journal’s scope or the most recent call for papers. By “recently” we mean within the last two years. Books that fall outside of this two-year window may be considered, but these should be discussed with the book review editors prior to submission, and it must be made clear why the book is relevant to review now (e.g., the book has not yet been reviewed, a new edition provides additions / critical context worth commenting on, etc.). Book review submissions should not exceed 1,500 words.

Manuscript Preparation

  1. ARC accepts electronic manuscripts submitted in the following document format: Microsoft Word (.doc or .rtf). If your manuscript includes non-Latin fonts, please indicate which font(s) you are using. Email submissions should be sent to the following address: arc.relgstud [at] mcgill.ca.

  2. Submissions should use Canadian spelling (e.g., “favour,” “colour,” “radicalization,” rather than “favor,” “color,” “radicalisation”).

  3. Submissions should use gender-inclusive language, with the exception of direct quotations and translations of ancient texts, which should conform to the standards of the original language.

  4. All notes should appear as footnotes (not endnotes), numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.

    For first-time citations, a full bibliographic reference should be given in a note:

    • Stanley Fish, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities (London: Harvard University Press, 1989), 123.
    • M. Jimmie Killingsworth and Jaqueline S. Palmer, “Millenial Ecology: The Apocalyptic Narrative from Silent Spring to Global Warming,” in ed. Carl G. Herndl and Stuart C. Brown, Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), 21–45.
    • Pierre Hadot, The Veil of Isis, trans. Michael Chase (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006), 18.

    If a complete bibliographic reference has already been given in a previous footnote, use the following short form: author’s last name, abbreviated title, page number.

    • Fish, Is There a Text in This Class?, 124.
    • Killingsworth and Palmer, “Millenial Ecology,” 34.
    • Hadot, The Veil of Isis, 25.

    *Please avoid the use of “ibid” (See: Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., 14.34).

  5. Commas and periods should fall within quoted material, while colons and semicolons follow closing quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation points follow closing quotation marks, unless they belong within the quoted matter (See: Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. 6.9-6.11).

  6. When using dashes to replace commas, parentheses or colons, use spaced “en” dashes rather than “em” dashes (See: Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. 6.83 & 6.85).

  7. When citing legal or archival documents, manuscript collections, scripture and other types of classical works, foreign language texts, multimedia mediums, etc. please carefully review the Chicago Manual of Style guidelines, particularly sections 14.221–14.305.

For questions of style, punctuation, and spelling not covered here, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017); and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2004). 

Editors: Amanda Rosini, Elyse MacLeod

Book review editor: Daniel Fishley

Advisor: Professor Daniel Cere

Undergraduate Publication - Canons

"Canons: The Undergraduate Journal of Religious Studies" seeks to publish the most compelling, innovative, and diverse undergraduate student research papers from the School of Religious Studies. If interested in submitting a paper or getting involved as an editor or layout assistant, please email mcgillcanons [at] gmail.com (Canons).

Advisor: Professor Hamsa Stainton

Canons, Voice and Rebellion, 2021-2022

Canons, Vol. XVIII, Unity, 2019

Canons, Vol. VII, Diversity in Religious Studies, 2011

Canons, Vol. VIII, Practical Religion: Living Through the Ages, 2012

 

     

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