Waterloo Historical Review Vol. 13 Call for Papers
Submission Due NOVEMBER 6th, 2026
The Waterloo Historical Review (WHR) is pleased to announce its call for submissions for the journal's 13th edition!
The Waterloo Historical Review is a student-led academic journal dedicated to fostering historical scholarship and intellectual engagement within the University of Waterloo community. The journal provides students with an opportunity to share their research, engage with historical scholarship, and gain practical experience in the academic publishing process.
Submissions are welcomed from undergraduate and graduate students across the University of Waterloo and beyond.
We encourage submissions on a wide range of historical topics and approaches. While papers do not need to conform to a particular theme, submissions should demonstrate a clear research question or argument, engagement with appropriate sources, and a meaningful contribution to historical discussion.
We look forward to reading your work and continuing to build a strong community of historical scholarship at the University of Waterloo!
What We Are Looking ForWe welcome original research papers, scholarly articles, case studies, literature reviews, and book reviews that demonstrate thoughtful historical analysis and engagement with relevant scholarship.
- Political, social, and cultural history
- Canadian and Indigenous histories
- European and global history
- Transnational and comparative history
- Historiography and historical methodology
- Public history and memory studies
- Intellectual and cultural history
- Interdisciplinary approaches to historical research
Submissions should be original work and should demonstrate a clear historical argument supported by appropriate primary and secondary sources.
Professors and TAsProfessors and TAs are encouraged to recommend outstanding student work for consideration by the Waterloo Historical Review.
If you have a student whose work demonstrates strong historical research, analysis, and writing, we welcome recommendations. Please provide the student's name, the title of the paper, and the student's email address. The WHR editorial team will contact the student directly regarding submission. Or have the students submit their papers through our website!
Submission GuidelinesAuthors are expected to carefully review the WHR Style Guide before submitting. Papers that do not substantially follow the required formatting and citation guidelines may be returned to the author for revisions before they can proceed through the editorial process.
- All submissions must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents (doc or .docx) through the WHR Website and must adhere to the Waterloo Historical Review Style Guide.
- All citations must follow the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, using the Notes and Bibliography system. Citations must be presented as properly formatted footnotes.
- Authors should not wait until the editorial stage to convert citations or reform their manuscripts.
All submissions to the Waterloo Historical Review undergo an extensive editorial review process. Depending on the number and nature of submissions received, this process may include initial screening, editorial review, revisions, copyediting, and final preparation for publication.
The timeline for review and publication will therefore vary from one edition to another. Submission does not guarantee publication, and authors may be contacted during the editorial process with requests for clarification or revisions.
We ask authors to be patient throughout the review and editing process. Our editorial team is committed to giving each submission careful consideration, but the time required to review, edit, and prepare papers for publication will depend in part on the volume of submissions received.
Authors will be contacted regarding the status of their submission as the editorial process progresses.
Submission Categories and Criteria Original Research PapersLength: 10–20 pages
Original research papers should present a clear historical argument supported by primary and secondary sources. Papers should demonstrate engagement with relevant scholarship and, where appropriate, situate the research within existing historiographical debates.
Scholarly ArticlesLength: 8–15 pages
Scholarly articles may take a variety of approaches, including:
- Critical Scholarship: Engagement with theoretical, historiographical, postcolonial, feminist, or other critical approaches to historical inquiry.
- Case Studies: Detailed examinations of particular historical events, individuals, communities, institutions, or developments that demonstrate broader historical significance.
- Comparative or Transnational Studies: Research examining historical developments across geographical, political, or cultural boundaries.
- Interdisciplinary Approaches: Historical research drawing upon methodologies or perspectives from other academic disciplines.
Length: 10–15 pages
Literature reviews should provide a critical examination of existing scholarship on a particular historical topic, historiographical debate, methodology, or field. Submissions should do more than summarize existing works and should identify significant themes, disagreements, developments, or gaps within the scholarship.
Book ReviewsLength: 500–750 words
Book reviews should provide a critical assessment of a recently published scholarly work. Reviews should situate the book within its relevant field, discuss its central arguments and methodology, and assess its contribution to historical scholarship.
