Call for Papers Vol 7 (2). The Perils of a Politics of Neutrality
Your silence will not protect you. – Audre Lorde
The imperative for nursing to engage politically - now and always.
Guest Editor
Jess Dillard-Wright, PhD, MA, RN, CNM, FAAN is interested in the places where nursing and activism meet. Jess is the co-editor-in-chief of Nursing Philosophy and serves as the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Elaine Marieb College of Nursing.
Intended Focus of this Special Issue
The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse is pleased to announce a special issue with a particular focus on the Perils of a Politics of Neutrality. As a caring profession, nursing enjoys a great deal of public trust, positive regard, and maternal affection. This is extremely useful politically and also serves as a technique of discipline, pointing to the politically-charged character of nursing. This call for papers is intended to explore the politics of nursing, specifically interrogating the risks of remaining silent or neutral in the context of larger political and social upheaval. From nurses being mobilized as victimized heroes in pandemic times to nursing organizations deferring engagement with critiques of capitalism, militarism, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, and nationalism, with this call we strive to make visible the stakes of politics in nursing and understand the politics of neutrality as itself a politics with implicit and explicit consequences.
Potential topics (suggestions, but not limited to)
- Critical analysis of the gendered implications of care work and politics in nursing
- How politics operate in nursing
- Political economies of healthcare and nursing
- The influence of policy on nursing labor
- Critical perspectives on maternal politics in nursing
- The meaning of silence in the context of nursing politics
- Organizational power and politics in nursing
- Nursing, war-making, and the military-industrial complex
- Politics of funding nurse research
- What it means when we say nothing at all about humanitarian crises, genocides, wars, poverty, violence, harm
- Grievable lives and the politics of care
- Other ideas? Connect with us to talk about it!
We welcome manuscripts from nurse activists, nurse policy-makers, students, clinicians, educators, researchers, administrators, nursing organizations people who receive nursing care. We especially welcome Indigenous perspectives, the experiences of nurses from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and contributions that reflect a critical analysis. Our guest editor will provide an editorial focusing throughout the development of this special issue.
Guidelines for Authors:
Submissions must be be nurse-authored or if submitted by a team, the lead author must be a nurse. Manuscripts should have a clear relevance to nursing. Additionally, Witness requires adherence to our authorship criteria, found at https://witness.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/AuthReq. Prospective authors should also familiarize themselves with the author guidelines set out in the journal found here: https://witness.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/about/submissions . Undergraduate student submissions are welcome; such submissions should be supported/mentored by a nursing faculty member, and this must be indicated in the cover letter.
Firm Submission Deadline: July 1st, 2025
Note: All required materials and online entries must be submitted through the journal’s online portal at www.yorku.ca/witness, following the journal and the Council on Publication Ethics’ guidelines including those associated with authorship, conflict of interest etc. Please ensure author teams review our webpage. Lastly, prospective authors must register with the journal in order to submit their work.
For any questions regarding the journal or this call for papers, including discussing proposed submissions that are not included in the suggested topics, please don’t hesitate to contact the editor, Dr. Cheryl van Daalen-Smith at witness@yorku.ca.
Selected References
Betts, C. E. (2009). Nursing and the reality of politics. Nursing Inquiry, 16(3), 261-272.
Kalisch, B. J., & Kalisch, P. A. (1976). A discourse on the politics of nursing. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 6(3), 29-34.
McMillan, K., & Perron, A. (2020). Nurses’ engagement with power, voice and politics amidst restructuring efforts. Nursing Inquiry, 27(3), e12345.
Rafferty, A. M. (2002). The politics of nursing knowledge. Routledge.
