Call For Papers

From Tucker Culbertson, Syracuse University College of Law

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Homosexuality (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/WJHM ): “Trans Sexualities”

The Journal of Homosexuality ( http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/wjhm ) invites the submission of extended abstracts for a special issue expected to publish in Fall 2012.

In this volume, we seek to not only conceptually disentangle gender and sexual identities, but to reveal the myriad ways in which their intersections can be both illuminating and perplexing. To date, in academic scholarship on LGBTQ sexualities, “transgender” too often remains present in acronym only, with very real consequences for inclusion and exclusion both in terms of transgender and transsexual personhood as well as to moving studies of gender and sexual identities, and sexual practices (including sexual labor) forward. In this special issue, we seek proposals for papers that focus critically on sexual identities and practices among transgender and transsexual individuals and their partners to begin to fill the existing lacuna in scholarship and theorizing around transgender and transsexual sexualities. To this end, we seek papers that address (but are not limited to) the following issues and topics:

Trans identities complicating binary notions of “gay,” “lesbian,” and “bisexual” sexualities (e.g., the experiences of gay trans men and lesbian trans women, making meaning of the term and concept of “hetero/homo/bi/sexuality” in the context of trans identity, how trans sexualities contribute to the “queering” of sexualities in general)

“Doing” masculinity, femininity, and androgyny as a trans person in the context of sexual identity and how sexual identities of trans people and their partners are often (mis)“read” and (mis)understood

Fluidity (or not) of sexual identities and/or practices in the lives of those who are trans and/or their sexual partners

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The role of language in shaping sexual identities and/or practices among trans people and/or their sexual partners

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Trans persons’ engagement with sex work and sexualized labor ·

International representations, understandings, and depictions of trans sexualities

Fetishization and commodification of trans sexualities—including the phenomenon, impacts, and effects of trans (in/hyper)visibility in the media (e.g., trans sexual voyeurism)

Intersections between trans bodies and trans sexualities ·

Trans sex, sexualities, and partnerships (and the challenges of conducting ethical scholarship around these issues considering the history of exploitive representations of transgender and transsexual lives) ·

Inclusion and exclusion of trans people within sexual rights movements and potentials for coalition building across social movements focusing on sexualities

Sexual safety and wellbeing of trans persons (and consideration of safer sex practices, sexual marginalization, sexual harassment, sexual assault, access to healthcare)

“Counting” trans people (to ensure that trans people count)—demographic studies of trans sexualities

Reviews of institutions, services, and programs that provide services and programs that include (or don’t) focus on trans sexualities

Methods for studying trans sexual identities, sexual practices, and sexual partnerships (and, further, identity and standpoint of the “researcher” and “researched”—how identity matters, considerations of cissexual and cisgender privilege)

We currently seek 1,200-1,500 word extended abstracts for proposed papers that provide a title, brief summary of your central arguments and evidence used to support these arguments, methods to investigate the topic under study (if applicable), and how your proposed paper contributes to, challenges, and/or extends existing scholarship on trans sexualities. Please be clear about the current status of the proposed paper in terms of whether it is at an incipient or advanced stage and provide a brief statement on how you intend to complete the final paper by March 2012. We seek proposals for both theoretical and empirical papers.


International work and work by trans scholars is particularly encouraged.

All abstracts and papers will undergo blinded peer review by a Special Editorial Board of interdisciplinary trans and non-trans scholars conversant with ethical scholarship on trans issues. To facilitate blind review, please prepare a cover page with your name, contact information, and proposal title, but do not include your name or other identifying information on subsequent pages—do include your proposal title at the top of each page. Send inquiries and extended abstracts to the Guest Editor of this Special Issue, Carla A. Pfeffer, at cpfeffer@purdue.edu by November 1, 2011. Final manuscripts should be approximately 7,500 words (about 25 pages) and will be due in March 2012.

 

Guest Editor: Carla A. Pfeffer (Sociology), Department of Social Sciences, Purdue University - North Central

Special Editorial Board:

Walter O. Bockting (Psychology) Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School

Nicola R. Brown (Psychology) Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

Aaron H. Devor (Sociology) Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Canada

Marcia Ochoa (Cultural and Social Anthropology) Feminist Studies, University of California - Santa Cruz

Tam Sanger (Sociology and Gender Studies) Childhood and Youth Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

Julia Serano (Biology) Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California - Berkeley

Susan Stryker (United States History) Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Arizona State University

Salvador Vidal-Ortiz (Sociology) Department of Sociology, American University