Call for Papers: Issue 25 (2025 ) "judgement"

Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue invites submissions on the theme of “judgement.”
In the contemporary moment we regularly see both forthright judgements and a recoiling from
the violence of such judgements. On the one hand, there has been a widespread (re)turn to the
political right, bringing with it a gleeful dismantling not only of the gains made for marginalised
identities and communities in the post-1960s period but an undisguised reimplementation of
forms of discrimination and oppression. Meanwhile on the left there is a staunch refusal to allow
space for anything that carries the whiff of, or bears some resemblance to, discredited attitudes,
particularly with regard to cultural or gender identity. On the other hand, there is a growing view
that critique, criticism, critical theory and critical thinking, rather than furthering progressive
thought and countering unreasonable and entrenched beliefs, can be damaging. Judgement
can perpetuate combative, competitive modes of being—affirming a state of opposition between
competing ideologies. Judgement can tend to represent and reaffirm existing paradigms and
conventions—that which already exists—rather than being conducive to generating unexpected and
imaginative insights, spaces and relationships—that which might happen. Judgement can appear
arbitrary and groundless in contexts (contemporary art, for example) where the criteria for value are
unclear or unstable. Judgement, no matter how rigorously supported, can be stultifying, imposing
the illusion of resolution, closure or an end-point rather than opening up more discussion. And
judgement can be culturally blind, based on ignorance or disregard for world views different to
one’s own, or harmful to mental health or wellbeing, a repercussion more conspicuous than ever
in today’s culture of candour and diagnosis. Yet the refusal to judge could be regarded as allowing
reprehensible or unsupportable views to go unchallenged, or as a pusillanimous acceptance of the
prevailing state of affairs. To refrain from explicit judgement might be a failure to recognise that,
as Barbara Herrnstein Smith has written, “We evaluate all the time. It’s not a matter of should or
shouldn’t. We can’t stop … We continuously orient ourselves different toward things that seem
better or worse, more or less desirable.” Smith’s position, simultaneously challenging entrenched
values and socio-political power relationships while acknowledging the inevitability of judgement,
constitutes a sophisticated form of post-modern relativism. Recent critical theory that advocates for
less judgemental forms of discourse is more aligned with the ontological turn, as with Rita Felski’s
2015 book The Limits of Critique, a critique (for want of a better word) of what she calls (using Paul
Ricoeur’s words) “the hermeneutics of suspicion.”

The editors welcome proposals for articles in any field or discipline and from diverse perspectives on the current status of critical judgement.

Please submit a title and abstract of between 500 and 750 words for a finished paper of
between 4,000 and 6,000 words accompanied by a short biography including your institutional
affiliation by 31 March 2025.

We will let you know if your abstract has been accepted by 14 April 2025. Final draft of submissions due by 2 June, 2025 with envisioned publication October 2025.

Please enquire about submission guidelines for other formats from editors:

Scott Klenner, Director | Research & Postgraduate Studies at Te Pūkenga | Otago Polytechnic.
scott.klenner@op.ac.nz

Edward Hanfling, Dunedin School of Art| College Te Maru Pūmanawa | Creative Practice &
Enterprise at Te Pūkenga | Otago Polytechnic.
ed.hanfling@op.ac.nz