Welcome to the companion website for the book project Call and Response-ability: Black Canadian Works of Art and the Politics of Relation. Like the book, this website explores the contexts, reception, and reception aesthetics of Black Canadian cultural achievement, including writing, music, film, and visual art.
We received a large number of outstanding contributions during our initial Call for Papers and the resulting volume was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in June 2026. For additional questions, please get in touch with the organizers.
Be sure to join us for the upcoming launch of Call and Response-ability on Thursday, October 1, 2026 at Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Avenue, in Toronto! Presented in partnership with OCAD U and McGill-Queen’s University Press, the launch will be hosted by David Chariandy, and will feature editors Karina Vernon and Winfried Siemerling, and contributors Lillian Allen and Joanne Leow. Reserve your spot to this exciting event at responseability.eventbrite.ca!
This website also offers a few reference materials that might be useful for any critical work in the project area: a general working bibliography, prepared by Valerie Uher, a bibliography with studies relevant to Black-indigenous solidarities, prepared by Karina Vernon, and a list that features various awards and prizes that celebrate Black Canadian authors and their contributions to literature across international, national, and provincial levels, prepared by Lara El Mekaui. You will also find here the description of a project-related panel at the Conference of the Modern Language Association (MLA) on Saturday, January 9, 2021.
The project is part of a joint research undertaking directed by Karina Vernon (University of Toronto) and Winfried Siemerling (University of Waterloo), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
