The marginalisation of LGBTIQA+ people remains a purposeful act of successive governments, institutions and individuals. The outcome has been poorer health outcomes, limited political participation, higher incarceration rates, and increased inequality and violence globally.
However, amidst this crisis LGBTIQA+ people have also created and maintained ways and means of survival. While being forced to the margins and away from the centre, queer theories and practices have emerged that challenge not only our own marginalisation but also consistently queery and question why human life is how it is. Whether surviving epidemics, persisting for equality in the law, or resisting assimilation, the power of LGBTIQA+ people is rarely collected in and across higher education disciplines. And, although often erased, a rich and vibrant life lives on in zines, the arts, the development of technologies and medicines, and in the pursuit of joy so each generation lives a life better than the one preceding it. Truly, queerness is a strength of which many should be enviable, and it deserves to be in the highest echelons of knowledge as any other discipline or practice.
This special issue aims to collect experiences, thoughts and approaches that apply queerness as a strength across any and all disciplines of practice. Ultimately, this issue aims to offer answers to the question, ‘how can the power of queers benefit wider society?’ From medicine to mathematics, to community organising and pedagogies, through to technologies and the arts, queer strengths have always improved how people live, work, connect and persist.
Paper themes may include, but are not limited to:
- Queer informed improvements to methods and methodologies
- Queer approaches to strengthen data collection and analysis
- The application of queer perspectives and experiences into and across disciplines traditionally void of queer strengths
- Commentary and ethnographies on lived/living experience of the queer researcher/practitioner/student
- Experiences written from global majority country citizens
- Indigenous and First Peoples perspectives
- Perspectives of those who live or practice an intersectional queer experience
- In/Justice in research, education and/or other institutions
- Survival, pain, trauma, rejection and/or loss
To further the discourse and propagate related knowledge Monash University has partnered with the University of Warwick’s interdisciplinary open-access journal Exchanges (exchanges.warwick.ac.uk) to produce a special issue based around these themes. The issue, anticipated for publication in 2025, aims to contain a range of papers from scholars around the globe.
46%
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2%Therefore, we invite initial expressions of interest for articles related to these themes. Expressions should contain the following information:Proposed paper title & anticipated format[1]
An outline abstract (50-200 words)
4-6 topic keywords or phrases
Contributors’ names, email addresses & associated institutions
An optional expression of interest form may be downloaded on the journal site.
All submissions of expressions of interest should be sent to Exchanges’ Editor-in-Chief (Dr Gareth J Johnson) (exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk) no later than Friday 1st March 2024.
Manuscript Submissions
Following the deadline, we will contact all successful authors with further information on manuscript submissions, including the final deadline, currently anticipated to be Friday 31st May 2024. All submissions should be made via Exchanges’ online submission portal.
Format Guidance
Papers for the special issue may be submitted under any of Exchanges’ article formats which include both peer-reviewed and editorially reviewed articles. Authors are strongly encouraged to review our author guidance relating to formats and their requirements before submitting their expression of interest. A formatted template is available to help authors in shaping their manuscript. Additionally, authors may find reviewing Exchanges’ policies on authorship, rights retention and conduct ahead of their submission useful:
Author Guidance: exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/guidance
Journal Policies: exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/journal-policies
Contact & Further Information
For more information, advice or any questions, please visit our website. Alternatively contact the Editor-in-Chief or special issue lead (Jacob Thomas). We look forward to reading your submissions.
Editor-in-Chief exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk
Special Issue Lead jacob.thomas@monash.edu
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Endnotes
[1] For format guidance see: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/guidance#formats
[2] Editorial review includes an initial scoping consideration by the Chief Editor, to ensure general suitability for the issue, along with a later revision dialogue with the author.
