Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue offers an examination of Christine Sleeter’s work on critical family history, a concept that brings together genealogical research and family history study with the tools of critical social science. The concept has been previously evaluated in this journal through a series of case studies and, more recently, through the lens of critical settler family history. The assumption underpinning this approach is that explorations of family and social histories, when brought together, can offer new ways to understand the dynamics of the past in order to better inform the present. As Sleeter suggests, critical family history is ‘a lens for viewing the long arc of history as social structures and human relationships that were solidified generations ago continue to play out today. The particular lens of family history turns broad questions into personal ones in which our own ancestors, and we ourselves, are the main actors.’[1] As Avril Bell has recently observed, this is highly relevant in settler societies too, where the work of critical settler family history is concerned with reflecting on the past in order ‘to consider the question of settler descendant identities and social locations in the present and responsibilities towards a decolonial future.’[2]

This Special Issue seeks to extend previous analyses by applying Sleeter’s critical framework to family history, as seen through the lens of migration. Taking inspiration from previous work on this topic, this Special Issue combines the genealogical research that characterises family history with critical social science scholarship, focussing on the lives of individual families to examine the structures, processes, and power relations inherent in societies shaped by narratives of migration. The central premise of this collection is that the process of discovering family history can be ‘unsettling’ (especially in colonial contexts); this is driven by and contingent upon the processes of dislocation, disruption and renewal—key components of the migratory experience.

Critical settler family history is an inter-disciplinary field and submissions are invited from scholars across the social sciences and humanities. Papers for this Special Issue should draw on the lives of families over one or more generations and respond to one or more of the following questions:

• How might we use family history narratives, in the context of stories of migration and ‘renewal’, to interrogate the processes of colonisation and the postcolonial condition? How might family history allow us to better reflect on the processes of migration as a constant ‘state of becoming’?
• What is the relationship between migration, colonisation, and white privilege and how does this impact on a family’s position today?
• What have been the relationships between a family and the resident Indigenous communities with who they have lived and worked? How have these relationships changed over time and what can they tell us about the contours and trajectory of settler colonialism?
• How have gender and/or sexual norms shaped and/or been resisted in the trajectories of family narratives and what insights does this history offer in relation to the role of gender and sexuality in the context of migration?
• What stories and memories have been celebrated across generations and which stories have been silenced, side-lined or forgotten? What can memories and silences tell us about migrant and settler colonial narratives?
• What issues are raised in doing critical settler family history work? What are the ethics of memory for the dead, as well as for the descendants of families and individuals?
• How do we come to terms with ‘surprising’ histories—and should we? Or is a state of discomfort a symptom of living in the postcolonial present?

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (g.byrnes@massey.ac.nz or Catharine.Coleborne@newcastle.edu.au) or to the Genealogy editorial office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review. All articles should include the list of references included in the text.

Please direct any inquires and submit a 200–300 word abstract by 28 February 2022 to the Special Issue editors at g.byrnes@massey.ac.nz or Catharine.Coleborne@newcastle.edu.au. A notification of acceptance will be sent by 14 March 2022, and full manuscripts are due by 30 November 2022.

[1] Christine Sleeter, ‘Critical Family History: An Introduction’, Genealogy 2020, 4, 64; doi:10.3390/genealogy4020064.

[2] Avril Bell, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genealogy/special_issues/critical_family_history, accessed 4 January 2022.

Prof. Dr. Giselle Byrnes
Prof. Dr. Catharine Coleborne
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• family/whanau
• genealogy/whakapapa
• Indigenous
• immigration
• colonisation
• gender
• postcolonial
• ethics