1. Pax Romana

Pax Romana is a family of international lay Catholic movements, the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) for university students and the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ICMICA) for professionals and intellectuals. Since its foundation after the First World War in 1921, Pax Romana has actively and creatively engaged society with a spirituality of action always in solidarity with the marginalized, the vulnerable and our common home.

2. The Pax Romana Journal

Pax Romana Journal is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed annual publication of the movement for literature reviews, research and opinion pieces on specific contemporary social issues. Key themes, include but are not limited to:

• Human rights;
• Democracy, good governance and global governance;
• Themes on the United Nations agenda;
• Faith, church reform, synodality, and lay participation;
• Youth participation and advocacy;
• Climate change and ecological justice;
• Intercultural/interreligious dialogue.

Each of these themes is approached from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching with the goal of promoting peace, justice and mercy, in service of the common good of the poor and the Earth.

3. Pax Romana Journal 2020 Theme – “Beyond COVID19: A Comprehensive Perspective”

​Covid-19 currently has spread to almost all the countries and territories in the world. It has forced humanity to re-examine every aspect of life on Mother Earth and raises new questions about the current neo- liberal socio-economic and political order, the relationship of Catholics to the church and the sacraments; the role of government and intergovernmental action in healthcare, and the relationship between peoples in forced of isolation.

Scientists have calculated that the COVID-19 epidemic may kill millions of people. But even before the virus there were so many other issues such as hunger, poverty, war, climate change, and inequality which caused millions of deaths all over the world. As we recognize the fragility and the cruelty of the current social order, it has given us another chance to look for alternatives to stop a future disaster and also to address the long due issues in the society.

4. Call for Submissions for 2020 Issue

This is an open call for,

• Academic Papers (Literature reviews, Opinion pieces, Articles. Etc.) and
• Artwork (Poetry, Play, Short stories, Paintings, Drawings, Cartoons, Photograph and Digital Art).

You are free to focus on any field (Medicine, Law, Religion/ Theology/ Spirituality, Sociology, Anthropology, Economy, Journalism, Local/International policy etc.,) in relation to the above theme.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Public health policy
• Legal reforms for the safety of vulnerable and marginalized communities in a crisis
• Negative impact of Intellectual property laws in a crisis situation
• How COVID19 has impacted higher education and the lives of university students;
• An evaluation of political responses to the crisis;
• The role of the church (Universal and Local);
• The emergence of online communities, including online faith-sharing groups;
• The social responsibility of science and medicine;
• COVID19 and ecological justice;

5. Submission of Abstracts for Academic Papers:

Link for submitting abstracts; http://forms.gle/5acjUS9D6vdiHHev9

1. Deadline for abstracts: 30 May 2020
2. Peer review:

A committee of two student leaders (IMCS members) and two scholars (ICMICA members) will evaluate the papers in a blind review process. You will be informed by June 15^th whether your abstracts are approved. If your abstract is accepted, you can proceed with your paper.

1. Deadline for final papers: 15^th August 2020
2. Maximum Word Limit: 3,000
3. Guidelines for Academic Paper Abstracts:

Abstracts must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge the nature and significance of the topic, the adequacy of the investigative strategy, the nature of the results, and the conclusions.

An abstract is an outline/brief summary of your paper and your whole project. It should have an intro, body and conclusion. It is a well-developed paragraph, should be exact in wording, and must be understandable to a wide audience. Abstracts should be no more than 400 words.

Abstracts highlight major points of your research and explain why your work is important; what your purpose was, how you went about your project, what you learned, and what you concluded.

If your title includes scientific notation, Greek letters, bold, italics, or other special characters/symbols, do make sure they appear correctly.

List all additional co-authors, whether they are or are not presenting, if applicable.

6. Submission of Artworks
7. Deadline for Artwork Submission – 15th July 2020

Written artworks should be submitted in Pdf format and visual artworks should be submitted in JPG, JPEG or PNG formats. All the artworks should be emailed to office.imcsmiec@gmail.com

1. Guidelines for the `Artworks:
2. Poetry

• The poem must have titles and contain a minimum of 10 lines.

1. Painting

• Artwork should be two dimensional
• Each artwork should be no larger than A4
• Any type of paint can be used (oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.), no crayons or colored pencils should be used.

iii.           Drawings

• Artwork should be two dimensional
• Each artwork should be no larger than A4
• Any drawing material could be used

1. Photography

• One photograph submission per participant is allowed
• Digital manipulation of the images will not be allowed.
• All submitted softcopy images must be less than 10MB in size.

1. Cartooning

• Size of the submission should be A4
• Submissions may include different sizes of cartoon – Single panel, strip or a two-tier strip

1. Short Story

• Should not exceed 1000 words
• No image or artwork should be used.

vii.          Play

• Should have a maximum of 3000 words.
• No image or artwork should be used.

7. Terms & Conditions

• All submissions can be in English, French, Spanish
• No more than three authors for each paper submission.
• Along with the submissions, participants should provide their full name, date of birth, address, contact number and email as applicable
• Content should be Critical, Non-Romanticized, Non-Abusive
• All submissions will be judged on Originality, Content, Theme & Creative presentation
• Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and may not violate any copyright laws; off topic discussions shall be disqualified and strictly no plagiarism is allowed
• PAX ROMANA shall use the content once submitted
• Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering the competitions.