Overview:

We are soliciting chapter proposals for an edited volume titled “Documentation of/as Violence.” In this volume, we seek to explore how documentation, or the lack thereof, can function in capacities that both enforce and protect against violence. We understand documents, and documentation, through two primary functions: surveillance and preservation. The collection of materials capturing violence enacted upon marginalized communities, as well as how the practice of documentation itself can be a violent action of surveillance experienced by marginalized communities complicate the function of representation in library and archival collections.

Throughout this volume, our goal is to encourage readers to reflect on the role(s) of violence in the preservation of history. We seek to map out a range of perspectives that critically engage with how professional practice addresses the documentation of violence, as well as how documentation itself enacts violence on marginalized communities. We welcome contributors writing from critical theoretical, Black, feminist, abolitionist, Indigenous, post-colonial, and liberatory perspectives, as well as contributors working outside of libraries and archives (such as community organizers and activists, and public historians).

Proposal Submission Deadline:

February 18, 2026

Sample topics:

Examples of topics include, but are not limited to:

Documentation and Surveillance Technologies

• Histories of the surveillance of marginalized communities

• Documentation of activism and activist groups

• Absence of documentation as protection (e.g., public libraries)

• Impact of technology/technological developments on documentation and ethics

• Access to and engagement with documentation of violence

Ethical Quandaries

• Agency and consent of the subject of documentation

• Who is entitled to documentation of a community?

• What is the value of documentation of violence?

• Preservation of documentation of violence

• Impact of one’s identity and positionality relative to the content of documentation

What is the value of documentation?

• Differences in the function of documentation for institutions and communities

• Gaps in documentation

• Archival silence

• Does loss of documentation equal violence against a community / history?

Proposal Guidelines:

Proposals should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (APA-7).

Proposals should include:

• Primary author’s name, email address, position title, and institutional affiliation

• Co-authors' names, email addresses, titles, and affiliations

• Brief author(s) biography (100 words maximum per author)

• Proposed chapter title

• A 300-500 word chapter proposal

Submit proposals via Google forms at https://forms.gle/Tb8hNu2WEQBmig6o6

Communications from the editors will be going to primary authors.

Proposal submission and timelines:

• Proposals for chapters due to editors: February 18, 2026

• Notification by editors of proposal acceptance: Late April

• Authors submit completed chapters: Mid-November 2026

• Anticipated publication is 2027 or 2028

• Additional key dates will be sent to successful proposal authors

Email questions to:

1. Tina Liu, Cataloguing Librarian, tina.liu@mcgill.ca

2. Tellina Liu, Archivist and Liaison Librarian, tellina.liu@mcgill.ca