Queer Critical Literacies in Global Contexts
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Queer Critical Literacies in Global Contexts
Transnational voices on queer(ing) languages and literacies in education
Edited by Dr Grant Andrews (La Trobe University, Australia)
& Dr Navan Govender (University of Strathclyde, Scotland)
Call for proposals for book chapters
In the US, hateful anti-trans rhetoric is becoming the political mainstream and states are banning books on LGBTQIA+ topics. Heads of state in Argentina and Hungary, under the guise of being “anti-woke”, have demonised same-sex sexualities and diverse gender identities. The previous PM of the UK has similarly decried "lefty woke culture" and made multiple anti-trans comments while in office, including a trans "joke" in the presence of a murdered trans teenager's mother. Uganda, Ghana and Russia have proposed or passed laws targeting LGBTQIA+ people. And far-right and neo-Nazi rallies in countries like Australia and Germany are amplifying anti-gay and anti-trans voices, while in South Africa a queer icon, Muhsin Hendricks, was recently murdered.
Queer people are under attack in new, horrifying ways. And yet, queer pedagogy continues to push boundaries. Educators are engaging with queer critical literacies in classrooms, online and in public spheres, using new technologies and innovative approaches to enhance their practice. Queer people and allies are resisting, existing and creating spaces for discourse.
Queer-trans-ness looks, feels, sounds differently in and across different Global North-South contexts, cultures, and disciplines. They also land differently in the politics of those contexts and cultures, shaping and being shaped by particular social, cultural, historical, political, semiotic, and ideological forces - sometimes imported. Queer critical literacies (QCL) provides a means to intervene, interrupt, disrupt, and transform power relations across everyday contexts and wider social action.
In this edited volume, we invite researchers and practitioners to contribute proposals for ‘vivid case studies’ (moments of queer pedagogies in action). These are critically reflexive narratives that trace how queer-trans lives, cultures, knowledges, and social systems surface across your (trans)national and educational contexts, and how these enable you to engage in education with queer affect - across curriculum design, pedagogy, languages, and disciplinary confines.
While all proposals will be considered, we aim to showcase a diversity of voices and especially encourage proposals from BIPoC and people working in the Global South or across North-South contexts. Your proposal must consider: How do the unique textures of your context contribute to ways of attending to or doing queer critical literacies or queer pedagogy, including affects of faith, culture or languages?
ABOUT THE EDITED VOLUME
Selected from the initial pool of proposals, the contributors will write a vivid narrative case study chapter (8000 words each) describing their positionality, approaches, challenges, perspectives and experiences in working with queer critical literacies in their context, and offer implications for practice based on their narratives. The chapters will consider how QCL responds to context, including the sociopolitical conditions that impact on how QCL takes shape. Chapters must be research-informed and reflexive.
PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
- Provide a working title, 5 keywords, and author contact details (including institutional affiliation)
- An abstract with a 250-word limit which covers aims, context, and overview of your proposed chapter
- Deadline: Proposals must be submitted by 30 June 2025
- Email proposals to: navan.govender@strath.ac.uk and G.Andrews@latrobe.edu.au
TOPICS FOR CHAPTERS MAY INCLUDE
- Innovative approaches to disrupt cis/hetero-normativity in your teaching context
- Navigating challenges in institutions or in teaching practice as a LGBTQIA+ person or ally
- Decolonial, anti-colonial or Indigenising approaches to queer pedagogies/ QCL
- Expanding and disrupting discourses and representations of queer-transness in your context
- Using technologies like AI, social media, or other digital tools in queer critical literacies
- Collaborations across North-South boundaries in queer research, dialogue or pedagogies
- Embodied activism, pedagogy or public performativity of diverse gender and sexuality expressions or identities
- Queer orientations, affect or intersectionality in education or in the face of sociopolitcal changes
Read more about the QCL framework and the history of critical-queer pedagogies it draws on:
Govender, N., & Andrews, G. (2021). Queer critical literacies. In The handbook of critical literacies (pp. 82-93). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003023425-9/queer-critical-literacies-navan-govender-grant-andrews
Grant Andrews
