How have queer and trans activists challenged the repressive status quo in the past? Which forms have queer and trans activism taken over the decades? What role do emotions and affects play in activism – and how can affect theory be utilized in the study of queer and trans histories and temporalities? These are among the questions that we wish to see discussed in the SQS Special Issue on Affective Histories of Queer and Trans Activism. We encourage discussions on cutting-edge theoretical and methodological approaches to queer and trans histories, including e.g. affect theory, queer studies, trans studies, oral history, cultural history, social history, and contemporary history.
We invite abstracts from scholars across multiple disciplines and career stages from Ph.D. students to established scholars. We invite submissions that address queer and trans histories from a variety of perspectives. They may include but are not limited to the following:
Historical struggles:
- Repressive laws: criminalization, propaganda laws, clause 28, etc.
- Discrimination and human rights: Wissenschaftlich-Humanitäres Committee, IGA, ILGA, etc.
- Black and Indigenous activism: pioneers, communities, historical erasure, etc.
- Health: depathologization, AIDS, gender affirmation, access to care, etc.
- Religion, spirituality: challenging conservative institutions, LGBTQ+ churches, MCC, etc.
Forms of activism:
- Organizing: founding and running of local, national, and international organizations and movements, CCO, Federation of 1948, RFSL, Seta, ACT UP, etc.
- Publishing: books, journals, zines, music, etc.
- Early internet: LGBTQ+ presence in the early internet, online communities, etc.
- Protests and marches: Compton Cafe Riot, Stonewall Riots, Pride movement, etc.
- Events: Gay Games, Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, World AIDS Day, Transgender Day of Remembrance, etc.
- Alternative forms of living: communities, Womyn’s land, etc.
Current engagements with LGBTQ+ histories
- Archival activism, museum activism
- Artistic activism
- Memorials and monuments
- LGBTQ+ History Month, Queer History Month
- Research as activism
The Special Issue will be published in SQS Journal, which is a peer-reviewed open access journal, published by The Society for Queer Studies in Finland. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, the journal also accepts e.g. opinion pieces, essays, and book reviews. Please indicate in your abstract which section of the journal your submission is targeted at (see author instructions: https://journal.fi/sqs/about/submissions). For this special issue, we prefer submissions in English, but following the trilingual language policy of SQS, submissions in Finnish and Swedish will also be considered.
Please send your abstract (max. 300 words) and bio (max. 100 words) via email to affectivehistories@gmail.com.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 August 2022
Decisions on abstracts will be sent to authors: 15 August 2022
Deadline for completed manuscripts: 30 November 2022
The special issue is co-edited by Dr. Varpu Alasuutari (varpu.alasuutari@tuni.fi, Tampere University, Finland), Merlin Sophie Bootsmann (m.bootsmann@fu-berlin.de, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, Orlando Brix (orlando.brix@gmail.com, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany), Barbara Dynda (basia.dynda@gmail.com, University of Warsaw, Poland) and Ivo Zender (ivo.zender@uni-bielefeld.de, Universität Bielefeld, Germany). Our collaboration on this Special Issue is a follow-up to an international workshop with the same title, organized at Tampere University in May 2022 by the research project Affective Activism: Sites of Queer and Trans World-Making (funded by the Academy of Finland).
