From its inception, gender studies analyzed the boundaries and binaries of gender to show that both are socially constructed. Earlier studies investigated the creation and institutionalization of gender boundaries in the realms of culture, politics, and economy as well as the link between gender boundaries and gender inequality. Drawing on critical race theory, feminists who demonstrated that boundaries of gender always interact with that of race and class opened up a fertile terrain for the study of intersections, as well as how gender boundaries interact with the production of hierarchies. In recent decades, with the efforts of feminist, transgender, queer theories, as well as through activism, gender boundaries and binaries have become highly contested. Studies in this vein probed the ways in which gender boundaries are crossed, bent, and shifted. On the other hand, authorities are adamantly enforcing gender boundaries via regulatory mechanisms and punitive measures. For example, just a few years ago, Iranian women football players were disqualified by the country’s national football federation for violating gender boundaries due to the fact that their testosterone levels were higher than conventionally established female range. As globalization intensifies and accelerates social, political, and cultural change at a dizzying speed, we need more explorations of novel dynamics and processes concerning the ways in which new actors create, navigate, and destabilize gender boundaries and binaries at local, national, and global levels.
The next issue of Trespassing aims to address these debates in the context of global restructuring. Potential questions to be addressed are: What is the impact of contemporary political/socio-economic transformations on the significance, durability, and visibility of existing gender boundaries? How are gender boundaries activated, maintained, imposed, violated, challenged, and transformed in the global era? How are gender boundaries and binaries produced or contested in intimate and family relationships, including in religious and spiritual lives? What are the new regulatory apparatuses that patrol the boundaries of gender and sex? How do these interact with racial/class/ethnic inequalities?
Areas of exploration/inquiry include but are not limited to:
- Gender Boundaries and Selfhood/Technologies of Self
- Gender Boundaries and Affect/Affective Exchanges
- Gender Boundaries and Labor, Work
- Gender Boundaries and Violence
- Gender Boundaries and Body, Sexuality
- Gender Boundaries and Politics, Citizenship
- Gender Boundaries and Writing Practices, Styles
- Gender Boundaries and Art, Literature, Cinema
- Gender Boundaries and Philosophy
- Gender Boundaries and Religion, Spirituality, and Therapeutic Practice
- Gender Boundaries and Medical Practice
Prospective contributors should submit an abstract of approximately 500 words and a brief CV by March 15, 2015, to editor@trespassingjournal.com or esrasarioglu@gmail.com