CFP: Graduating Gender: Queer Grad Students Reading Culture (2/30/07; collection)

"Graduating Gender: Queer Grad Students Reading Culture."

I am seeking submissions for an edited collection of graduate student essays
on queer/trans theory, gender issues, and cultural studies. This collection
will focus particularly on the unique role that LGBT grad students play in
the analysis of culture, the various roles and spaces (including spaces of
exile) that they inhabit within the academy, and the anxiety of studying
queer texts within 'straight' English and Comparative Lit departments. What
is it like to be 'the only gay in the village,' the sole queer grad student
who must 'represent' politically within a department? What types of queer
graduate communities exist, either in metropolitan or rural universities,
and what happens when a gay, bi, or trans student simply wants to write on
canonical texts (or only wants to write on queer theory when his/her peers
are busy studying Chaucer and Milton?)

All submissions should keep these questions in mind, and autobiographical
and personal-inflected essays are strongly encouraged. The collection aims
to present evocative, precise, and sharp readings of contemporary cultural
texts (novels, poetry, film, tv) from LGBT grad students, especially those
working within English, CompLit, and Women's Studies departments, although
submissions from other disciplines will be considered. Each article should
have a solid theoretical basis, and should interrogate specific literary or
cinematic works, but should also be written as much as possible from a
personal perspective. How is your work different because of your in-between
status as a grad student, because of your various experiences within
departments that may be either magnanimous, neutral, or outright hostile to
your sexuality or gender? What would you say if there were no rules, no
committees, no supervisors, and no boundaries--what would you say, and why?

I would like to receive abstracts by Feb 30, 2007 at the latest, although if
there is considerable interest I will extend the deadline. Please enclose a
current CV as well as a brief bio. If you feel that your work is
particularly controversial, and fear that it might even jeopardize future
job prospects or relations with your department (as all great work probably
will), you are welcome to publish under a first name, pseudonym, or simply
to include no specific information about your institution.

Email submissions to: graduating_gender_at_hotmail.com
(graduating_gender_at_hotmail.com). Please use .rtf files for your
attachments, as they are much smaller and easier to view on both mac and pc.

You will be notified that your submission has been received, and I should be
able to let everyone know a month after the deadline (Mar 30/07) which
abstracts have been accepted. I have a publisher in mind, and will contact
them with a proposal once all of the abstracts have been received. Since
university publishers are often back-logged, the collection will probably go
to press in late-2008, possibly even early-2009. Keep this in mind,
especially if you are looking to publish right away, since these projects
take time to develop. I will keep everyone posted as things develop.

Best wishes

M.J. Walker
Doctoral Candidate and Instructor, Comparative Literature

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Received on Mon Sep 04 2006 - 18:55:23 EDT