Call for papers: Queering Animal Studies/Animalizing Queer Studies

Animal studies is a cross-disciplinary field consisting of several branches that both overlap and diverge, such as “critical animal studies,” “human-animal studies,” “humanimal studies,” “animality studies,” and “species studies”. Based on thoughts developed over a few decades, it was – just like queer studies – formed in the 1990s and in close relation (and some tension) with a movement for social and political recognition (animal rights/gay rights). Historically, there have been many connections between these two movements, and this is also true for the respective scholarly fields today. With the publication of Queering the Non/Human (ed. Hird/Giffney 2008), an animal studies/queer studies subfield was initiated with the aim to scrutinize the role of norms regarding gender and sexuality in relation to non-human life. Since then, several special issues of research journals that focus on this intersection have been published.

With this CFP to be included in an issue of lambda nordica about the intersection between animal studies and queer studies, we aim to further the knowledge in this field. Some of the questions we wish to address are: How can non-human perspectives challenge heteronormative notions of a binary gender system and different kinds of sexual activities, drives and desires? In what ways are categories such as ethnicity, race, class, age and functionality operating in the production of “human” and “non-human”? To what extent can queer perspectives shed light on the connection between reproduction, chronological time and capitalism in the meat- and dairy industry? How can emotional connections between humans and animals renew perceptions of intimacy, family and sexuality? Which ethical questions arise in the intersection between animal studies and queer studies? How do cultural representations of animals correspond to societal norms regarding gender, sexuality, and species? In what ways do corporeality, vulnerability and violence relate to queerness and the human/animal divide?

Articles should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words including notes and references and should not have been published previously. The issue will be in English and the Nordic languages. For more detailed instructions, see the journal webpage: www.lambdanordica.org.

We ask you to send us one-page abstracts for article submissions.

Deadline for abstracts: December 15, 2024
Deadline for articles: March 16, 2025

Please submit your abstract and send queries to queeringanimalstudies@sh.se

We look forward to reading your proposals!
Ann-Sofie Lönngren & Amelie Björck, human-animal studies scholars and senior lecturers in literature, Södertörn university, Stockholm, Sweden

REFERENCES
Alaimo, Stacy. 2010. “Eluding Capture: The Science, Culture and Pleasure of ‘Queer’ Animals.” In Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, edited by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, 51–72. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Bagemihl, Bruce. 1999. Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. New York: St. Martin’s.
Bakke, Monika. 2009. “The Predicament of Zoopleasures: Human-Nonhuman Libidinal Relations.” In Animal Encounters, edited by Tom Tyler and Manuela Rossini, 221–42. Leiden: Brill.
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New York: Routledge.
Dell’Aversano, Carmen. 2010. “The Love Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken: Queering the Human-Animal Bond.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 8.1–2:73–125.
Franklin, Sarah. 2002. “Dolly’s Body: Gender, Genetics and the New Genetic Capital.” Filozofski vestnik 23.2:119–36.
Ganetz, Hillevi. 2004. “Familiar Beasts: Nature, Culture and Gender in Wildlife Films on Television.” Nordicom Review 25.1–2:197–213.
Garber, Marjorie. 1996. Dog Love. New York: Touchstone.
Grubbs, Jennifer. 2012. “Inquiries and Intersections: Queer Theory and Anti-Speciesist Praxis.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 10.3. Halberstam, Jack. 2020. Wild things: the disorder of desire. Durham: Duke University Press
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Hird, Myra, and Noreen Giffney, eds. 2008. Queering the Non/Human. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jagose, Annamarie. 2019. “Anthropomorphism, Normativity, and the Couple: A Queer Studies/Human-Animal Studies Mash-Up.” GLQ. A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 25.2:315–31.
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Luciano, Dana, and Mel Y. Chen, eds. 2015. “Special Issue: Queer Inhumanisms.” GLQ. A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 21.2–3.
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McHugh, Susan. 2009. “Queer (and) Animal Theories.” GLQ. A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 15.1:153–69. Riggs, Damien, Shoshana Rosenberg et al. 2021. Queer Entanglements. Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Animal Companionship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rosenberg, Gabriel. 2017. “How Meat Changed Sex: The Law of Interspecies Intimacy after Industrial Reproduction.” GLQ. A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 21.2–3:473–507.
Roughgarden, Joan. 2004. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rudy, Kathy. 2012. “LGBTQ…Z?” Hypatia 27.3:601–15.
Steinbock, Eliza, Marianna Szczygielska, and Anthony Wagner, eds. 2017. “Special Issue: Tranimacies: Intimate Links between Animal and Trans* Studies.” Angelaki 22.2.
Terry, Jennifer. 2000. “‘Unnatural Acts’ in Nature: The Scientific Fascination with Queer Animals.” GLQ . A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 6.2:151–93.