Call for Papers: Queer Crossings in Belligerent Times

The Society of Queer Studies in Finland’s peer-reviewed journal SQS invites submissions under the theme

Queer Crossings in Belligerent Times

Problematizing borders has always been a central tenet of queer thinking and scholarship, with emphasis varying over time. In the 1990s, early queer theory challenged established categories of gender and sexuality. In the 2000s, queer theory critiqued homonationalisms and the complicities in the construction of an unbridgeable civilisational gap between purportedly advanced and backward societies, particularly in the context of the “war on terror”. Similar critiques have subsequently been articulated in the context of migration and border control, particularly between Europe and war-torn Middle-East. The ”migrant crisis” was reframed as a crisis of the postcolonial world order instead of a crisis of European borders. Finally, the shift in the public response to a new, intra-European wave of war-induced forced migration, from Ukraine, has further highlighted the significance of distinction; questions of racialization, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in refugee (non)reception. While queer as a political concept seeks to counter and rethink norms and poses a challenge to established boundaries, the boundaries of queerness itself need to be interrogated. How are various lines drawn across /within and around queer communities?

Our special issue of the SQS Journal mobilises the contention between the concepts of queer and borders, particularly against the backdrop of times of violence and war that accentuate and sharpen various borders. Belligerence, however, is not confined to national borders in war zones but, for example, the much-debated polarization of political landscapes within so-called liberal democracies involves uncompromising, abjecting and violent positionalities against “others” – queer, ethnic, liberal or otherwise. What happens to queer ideals of openness under such pressure? Are cross-identity mobilization, fluid militantism and thinking beyond conventional norms of factionalism and belligerence in hope of creating new orders of peace and (co)existence still possible? 

Submissions may cover themes such as:

• Migration and queer exile – Nationality and queerhood  
• Risk and exile in norms: migration beyond the territorial, for example as (ad)venturous departure from (homely and conventional) norms.  
• Queering politics in hot and cold wars  
• Alliances and sympathies, how political ideologies and narratives travel across boundaries  
• Humanitarian law between patriarchy, patronizing narcissism and meaning-making of equity/equality.    
• Gaps and silences:  Erasures in the construction of the national, multi-cultural and queer selfhood.

SQS invites submissions for peer-reviewed articles (not to exceed 70 000 characters), editorially managed review articles (35 000), opinion pieces and commentaries (21 000) as well as book reviews for the special issue. The journal publishes texts written in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Please, submit your full text manuscript in the online submission portal at journal.fi (requires registration) no later than 23 April, 2023. For information on how to submit, see https://journal.fi/sqs/about/submissions.

The article manuscripts go through peer review. For a successful editorial process, please note that revision requests to most submissions are common. Should you like to have advice or an opinion on an idea for an article ahead of writing, please, send the editors of the special issue an abstract of 200-300 words, Ali Ali (ali.ali(a)Helsinki), Salla Aldrin-Salskov (salla.aldrinsalskov(a)helsinki.fi) and Jan Wickman (jan.wickman(a)helsinki.fi) before 23 January. For any other inquiries, too, please do not hesitate to contact the editors.

SQS is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, published by the Society for Queer Studies in Finland. Please find the previous issues of SQS since 2005 at https://journal.fi/sqs/issue/archive.
Society for Queer Studies in Finland was founded in Helsinki in 2004, and it is a member of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.

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Call for Papers: Affective Histories of Queer and Trans Activism

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).

EXTENTED Call for papers: Queer Tentacles – Theory, Arts, Activism – Jyväskylä 23.–24.9.2022

Call for papers: Queer Tentacles – Theory, Arts, Activism 

SQS Seminar, University of Jyväskylä (Finland), 23.–24.9.2022 

The Society for Queer Studies in Finland (SQS) invites research contributions to a seminar on queer tentacles, planned to take place onsite in Jyväskylä (Finland). We welcome suggestions for sessions/workshops AND individual papers. Deadline for submissions: May 31, 2022.  

The figure of a tentacle suggests three interrelated ideas. First, we think of the lengthy and sustained reach of queer concepts, ideas and works over cultural, national and temporal borders, including the exchanges between arts, theory and activism. Second, we want to focus on the affective complexity of “feeling” these connections and their grasp. These include different, potentially new forms of embodiment or intimacy – as suggested not only by queer, trans, feminist, posthumanist and critical race theories but also by, for instance, speculative fictions, poetry and experimental artworks in different media. Third, we cherish the resilience, relentlessness and elasticity of queerness and queer themes and subjects: as a squid manages to grow a fresh tentacle to take the place of a severed one, queer is always returning in new forms. While queer theory has often focused on loss, grief and death, we would also like to reflect on the possibilities of (re)imagining new forms of queer lives and queer survival.  

Keynote speakers: 

Jericho Brown (Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emory University, Atlanta. Author of The Tradition, Winner of The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 2020.) 

Sam McBean (Senior Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality, and Contemporary Culture, Queen Mary University of London. Author of Feminism’s Queer Temporalities, 2015) 

We are looking for papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics: 

• The queerness or the queering of tradition, transmission and/or transformation
• Relevance of queer theory and queer studies for contemporary artistic practices 
• (Re)imagining queer subjectivity and corporeality in the arts (e.g. comics, literature, film and television, theatre, music, performance, dance, mixed genres)
• Trans theory, trans poetics and their relations to queer
• Queer intimacies
• Queer (and) decolonization
• Queering feminisms, then and now: queer work in “shadow feminisms”
• How queer as a verb or an adjective relates to LGBTQIA+ activism
• Emerging and growing areas of queer research: queer narrative studies, queer death studies, queer life studies, queer animal studies, queer posthumanities, etc.
• Rethinking queer methods and methodologies

If you are proposing an individual paper: 

Please provide the title and a 200-word abstract for the proposed presentation. Include your name, affiliation and email address. We hope you will add a short bio (100 words) with information about your publications, projects and research interests. 

If you are proposing a session / workshop: 

Please provide a description of 300–400 words, including the suggested title of the workshop. Include names, affiliations and email addresses of the participants. We hope you will add short bios (100 words/person) containing information about your publications, projects and research interests.  

The deadline for proposals is June 30, 2022.  

We ask you to submit your proposal by email to: sqstentacles22@gmail.com

Use the same address for any questions about the event and arrangements.

Please note: The seminar will have a participation fee of 50 euros. We will also accept presentations in Finnish. A website with more detailed instructions, including information about possible online presentations, will be published once the program has been confirmed.  

Ilmianna ihailemasi queer-tutkimusteko!

Suomen queer-tutkimuksen seura SQS (Sällskapet för queer-forskning i Finland) pyytää ilmoittamaan erityisen ansiokkaita queer-tutkimustekoja ajalta 2020-2021. Seuran hallitus valitsee ehdokkaiden joukosta kahden vuoden välein myönnettävän tunnustuspalkinnon.

SQS haluaa korostaa, että ehdotettavat teot voivat olla artikkeleiden, opinnäytteiden ja tutkimustekstien lisäksi yhteisöllisiä, aktivistisia ja taiteellisia tekoja. Tutkimuksen kannalta kiinnostavia ja tarpeellisia avauksia sukupuolen ja seksuaalisuuden moninaisuudesta tapahtuu jatkuvasti myös akateemisten ympäristöjen ulkopuolella. Huomioikaa ehdotuksia miettiessänne kahden vuoden aikaväli.  

Aiemmin nimellä pervotutkimusteko jaettua tunnustusta on myönnetty vuodesta 2015. Sen ovat aiemmin saaneet tutkija Riikka Taavetti, Q-FemZine-lehti ja verkkosivusto, Kulttuuria kaikille-palvelu ja SETA ry. Palkinto myönnetään vuoden 2022 queer-tutkimuspäivillä.

Ehdotuksia voi lähettää huhtikuun 2022 loppuun mennessä sähköpostitse sqsseura@gmail.com tai yksityisellä viestillä (messenger) seuran facebook-sivustolle https://www.facebook.com/SQSmedia

PAIKANTUMISEN POLITIIKKA JA KUMMAT KÄSITTEET: SQS-LEHDEN PANEELI

pe 15.10.2021 klo 17–19

Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, Factory-sali, Itäinen Rantakatu 4–6, 20700 Turku

Suomen queer-tutkimuksen seuran lehti (SQSJ) järjestää Suomen tiedekustantajien liiton tuella paneelikeskustelun Paikantumisen politiikka ja kummat käsitteet. Paneelissa pohditaan queer-tutkimuksen ja LHBTQI+-liikkeen keskeisten käsitteiden historiaa, kattavuutta ja katvealueita. Lisäksi hahmotetaan niiden yhteyttä nyky-yhteiskunnallisiin ilmiöihin sekä globaaleihin ja lokaaleihin jännitteisiin: esimerkiksi nk. translakiin liittyvään kansalaisaloitteeseen, rakenteelliseen rasismiin sekä globaaleihin terveyden, eriarvoisuuden ja toimijuuden kysymyksiin.

Panelistit ovat

• Väitöskirjatutkija Otso Harju

Helsingin yliopiston väitöskirjatutkija Harju (MSc) tutkii etnografian kautta feminismien, sukupuolittuneisuuksien ja etuoikeuksien diskursseja Intiassa ja Suomessa. Häntä kiinnostaa erityisesti yliopistorakenteiden ja feministisen etiikan suhde.

• Akatemiahankkeenjohtaja, SQS-lehden toinen päätoimittaja Tuula Juvonen

Juvonen (YTT, dos) on Tampereen yliopiston sukupuolentutkimuksen ma. yliopistonlehtori. Hän on tutkinut laajasti homoseksuaalisten ihmisten asemaa ja historiaa Suomessa. Hän johtaa Suomen Akatemian rahoittamaa tutkimushanketta Affektiivinen aktivismi: queer- ja transmaailmojen luomisen paikat (2021–2025). Juvonen on tehnyt yhteistyötä muistiorganisaatioiden kanssa sukupuolen ja seksuaalisuuden moninaisuuden tallentamiseksi ja ollut mukana perustamassa Sateenkaarihistorian ystävät ry:tä. Hän on toiminut pitkään SQS:n hallituksessa ja seuran lehdessä.

• professori Sanna Karkulehto

Karkulehto (FT, dos) on kirjallisuuden professori Jyväskylän yliopistossa. Hän on ollut perustamassa Suomen queer-tutkimuksen seuraa ja lehteä sekä toiminut lehden päätoimittajana. Hän on soveltanut queer-teoriaa ensisijaisesti kirjallisuuden-, kulttuurin- ja mediarepresentaatioiden tutkimukseen. Queer-teoreettinen epistemologia on näkyvissä myös hänen viimeaikaisissa sukupuoleen, väkivaltaan ja posthumanistiseen teoriaan keskittyneissä tutkimuksissaan, mm. yhteistoimitetuissa teoksessa Violence, Gender and Affect (2021).

• Yliopistonlehtori Jan Wickman

Wickman (YTT, dos) on vt. sosiologian yliopistonlehtori Svenska social & kommunalhögskolanissa Helsingin yliopistossa. Hän on toiminut useaan otteeseen Suomen queer-tutkimuksen seuran hallituksessa ja seuran lehden toimitustyössä. Hänen tutkimustyönsä on käsitellyt trans-itseymmärryksen kollektiivista rakentumista suomalaisessa trans-yhteisössä, nykyisen trans-lain syntyprosessia, pohjoismaista queer-aktivismia sekä trans- ja queer-tutkimuksen ja -aktivismin suhdetta.

Puhetta johtavat ja tapahtumaa koordinoivat luovan kirjoittamisen opettaja Emilia Karjula (FT) sekä Helsingin yliopiston tutkijatohtori, SQS-lehden toinen päätoimittaja ja SQS:n puheenjohtaja Tiia Sudenkaarne (VTT, FM). Paneelia voi seurata etänä https://utu.zoom.us/j/68683397493.