Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies

Vol. 52 No. 2 | September 2026

Call for Papers

Transitional Justice?

Representing Legacies of Violence in Asian and Transpacific Frames

Guest Editors

Soo Yeon Kim (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

Guy Beauregard (National Taiwan University)

Deadline for Submissions: December 31, 2025

Both an academic field and a political practice, transitional justice refers to a complex process through which a wronged society or group attempts to move beyond traumatic events, such as mass human rights violations, and restore peace and legitimacy for rebuilding civil society. While a victimized group must somehow come to terms with legacies of violence, reaching a consensus on the manner and extent of punishment and redress often remains challenging. Difficulties arise because, as many scholars of the field have noted, the multiple goals of transitional justice—such as seeking truths about violations, punishing perpetrators, and working toward social reconciliation—frequently collide with each other. In addition to heated debates about goals, scholars have also argued about which methods and mechanisms can effectively (re)establish a more just civil order. In different situations, a combination of mechanisms—formal trials (if politically feasible), official apologies, reparations, truth commissions, amnesties, and lustration policies—have been adopted and tailored to a society’s or group’s specific local / national / international contexts.

Facing the inherent challenges of transitional justice, this special issue seeks to focus on representations of legacies of violence which, be they artistic or part of popular culture, are shaped by the constraints of each genre or medium. By inviting submissions engaged with diverse histories and texts concerning the unsettled and unfinished process of transitional justice in Asian and transpacific frames, the issue aims to explore questions such as how to present the unrepresentable, the ways that histories can be remembered or reimagined, and the ways that artistic or popular texts engaged with transitional justice have been and/or might be received. Above all, this issue seeks to engage with transitional justice—presented with a question mark—as a dilemma, as a problem, as something to reconsider. Contributions addressing any aspects of this overarching theme are welcomed. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1)  Art and literature as a platform for envisioning transitional justice
(2)  Han Kang and literature’s role in transitional justice
(3)  Popular transitional justice films
(4)  The nuclear Pacific and ongoing attempts to seek redress
(5)  Expanded concepts of transitional justice in the #MeToo Movement
(6)  Documentaries about Asian colonial subjects in World War II 
(7)  Changing media representations of pain and memory
(8)  Narrating transitional justice in transpacific frames

Please send complete papers of 6,000-10,000 words, 5–8 keywords, and a brief biography to concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw by December 31, 2025. Manuscripts should follow the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Except for footnotes, which should be single-spaced, manuscripts must be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman. Please consult our style guide at http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw.

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Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. Concentric is devoted to offering innovative perspectives on literary and cultural issues and advancing the transcultural exchange of ideas. While committed to bringing Asian-based scholarship to the world academic community, Concentric welcomes original contributions from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. In each issue of Concentric we publish groups of essays on a special topic as well as papers on more general issues. http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/.

For submissions or general inquiries, please contact us at: concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw.

CFP-52.2-Transitional Justice Representing Legacies of Violence in Asian and Transpacific Frames