Letter from the Editorial Board
Dear Readers,
We are proud to present the second issue of Volume 2 of the Canadian Journal for the Academic Mind (CJAM). This edition continues our mission to provide an accessible, rigorous, and student-led platform for critical scholarship, intersectional thought, and academic inquiry. The works featured in this issue discuss pressing social, political, and ethical challenges, demonstrating once again that students are not only observers of the world, but are active participants in critically analyzing and reshaping it.
This issue reflects CJAM’s commitment to student-led research that is rooted in academic tradition, while also being unafraid to challenge dominant paradigms of our world. From evolutionary psychology to international criminal law, from Indigenous justice to queer resistance, the range of contributions really prove how interconnected our struggles for justice truly are. At a time when the silencing of dissent and the devaluation of academic freedom is on the rise globally, CJAM strongly reaffirms its support for intellectual freedom and community-led knowledge production.
Several of the pieces in this issue focus on the structural violence and state repression that shape marginalized communities' access to justice, healthcare, safety, and recognition. Other articles interrogate the systems that sustain these inequities – be it through colonial legacies, neoliberal policies, imperial media narratives, or carceral approaches to public health. Through their work, our student authors demonstrate that scholarship can be both analytically rigorous and politically courageous.
We are especially proud to feature work that centres lived experience, intersectionality, and anti-colonial analysis. These are not just abstract frameworks but are necessary tools to confront the realities of injustice. Whether it is a critique of how the Canadian government enables the disappearance and death of Indigenous women, or an exploration of queer solidarity with Palestine in the face of state retaliation, the articles in this issue do not shy away from uncomfortable truths.
We remain forever grateful to our brilliant authors for their trust and courage and our peer reviewers for their thoughtful engagement. We thank our advisory team, Professors Anne MacLennan, Michelle MacDonald, and Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan for their ongoing support. Lastly, we are incredibly appreciative of our financial sponsor, the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. The journal would not be possible without the collective care, solidarity, and intellectual generosity of this community.
As CJAM grows, we invite you to be part of its future. We encourage students from all disciplines and backgrounds to consider submitting to future issues. We hope this journal continues to serve as a space where students are able to push boundaries, ask difficult questions, and shape the academic mind of tomorrow
Yours sincerely,
Nir Hagigi, Editor-in-Chief, Carleton University
Hailey Baldock, Associate Editor, York University
Christine Rose Cooling, Associate Editor, York University
Karen Mateus, Associate Editor, University of Ottawa
Riley Mae Williamson, Director of Communications, McMaster University
Anya Niedermoser Roth, Editor, Carleton University
Haley Glass, Editor, McMaster University
Joel White, Editor, York University
Ava Bizjak, Editor, McMaster University
Jadyn Yelle, Editor, Carleton University
Tayssir Benchoubane, Editor, Carleton University
Brynn Colledge, Editor, University of Western Ontario
Ellen Yarr, Editor, Carleton University
Eden Sedarous, Editor, McMaster University