Call for papers: Special Feature on Feminist/Queer Utopia and Dystopia in Times of Crisis for CGS Journal No. 16 (To be published on March 2021)

Gender and Sexuality, the Journal of the Center for Gender Studies (CGS) is currently seeking submissions for a special feature on the intersections between feminist/queer issues and utopian and dystopian thought.
*Please note that our annual CFP is also open, so we welcome manuscripts unrelated to the proposed theme.

A crisis of the dimension that we are facing right now leaves no individual unaffected. We know, however, from past emergencies that those more vulnerable become more so during crises. Emergency situations amplify the vulnerabilities sustained by our patriarchal, heterosexist, racist and ableist societies. Economic insecurities, limited access to health care and education, an elevated risk of family and domestic violence - even in the absence of a global crisis, women, LGBTQI people, people of color, or people with disabilities are more likely to experience one or more of these issues. In other words, our societies have always been, to some extent, dystopian.

Thus, what we need now, more than ever, are imaginaries and conceptual tools that enable us to challenge these inequalities and to dream of new possibilities, of new futures, not just beyond COVID-19, but beyond this unequal distribution of vulnerability across the lines of gender, sexuality, race and dis/ability. It is our opinion that feminist/queer narratives of possible futures, that is, the genres of feminist/queer utopia and dystopia provide us with the languages to do that.

In this special feature we want to take a closer look at this genre and offer a forum to scholars, activists and writers for discussing the critical potential of utopian and dystopian thought as it intersects with feminist and queer issues, in the hope that this collection of critical writing will provide us with some additional intellectual resources to imagine and realise alternative futures.

We will accept contributions in English and Japanese, either in the form of academic papers or creative essays by scholars, activists and artists on topics including but not limited to:

-intersections between dystopian and utopian imagination and questions of gender, sexuality, race, class and disability in art, literature, film and other forms of cultural representation

-representations of gender, sexuality, race, class and/or disability in speculative fiction and science fiction

- theories of feminist/queer utopia and dystopia

- theories of feminist/queer temporality

- feminist and queer politics in times of crisis

- feminist and queer ethics in times of crisis

- COVID-19 and feminist/queer politics

- health and health care in the context of feminist/queer politics

- vulnerability in the context of feminist/queer thought, politics and representation

- gender, sexuality, race, class and/or disability and epistemologies of responsibility/blame

Submission deadline: August 31st, 2020.

E-mail address for paper submission: cgs@icu.ac.jp

Papers submitted for the publication as academic paper will undergo a preliminary screening by the editorial team and peer review upon provisional acceptance. Final acceptance of the paper depends on the result of the peer review.

Creative essays will undergo screening by the editorial team.

For the submission guidelines please refer to the Journal Regulations in our latest issue, ICU Gender and Sexuality, vol. 15 as of March 2020. (http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/cgs/en/journal/)