In physics, refraction is the phenomenon by which a wave changes its direction as it passes from one medium to another, and in the process, alters perception of that thing. As an interdisciplinary journal, we are interested in the possibilities of refraction towards developing dynamic approaches to visual, sonic, and textual media. As a journal of postcolonial thought, we are invested in refraction in relation to the project of decentralising, unsettling, and disrupting colonial power and legacies, democratising and decolonizing methods of knowledge production and circulation, and imagining otherwise.

In this vein, Refractions will house writing that brings academic scholarship to a larger audience. With a focus on work by graduate students and early career scholars, this journal aims to make academic publishing open access and accessible, and showcase dynamic engagement with the literary and the cultural. Refractions is also invested in the production of postcolonial cultural theory outside traditional scholarship—the creativity and activism well beyond the university—likewise imagining and labouring towards “decolonized elsewheres” (Tuck & Yang). As a venue, Refractions aims to celebrate diverse expressions of decolonial desire and their cross-pollination.

The production of this journal transpires on the unceded Indigenous land of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters of this region, one which historically has served as a gathering place for many First Nations. As a project invested in postcolonial cultural studies, this journal emerges at the juncture of histories of colonial extraction and Indigenous resilience, colonial violence and anticolonial and Indigenous brilliance, that have ushered this field of study into the present. We respect the continued connections with the past, present, and future in our ongoing relations with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.

Refractions is edited by Priscilla Jolly and Sadie Barker, PhD candidates and instructors in the department of English at Concordia University, Montreal.