Queers have always been involved in anti-imperialist/ anti-colonial struggles— including both queer folks who have endured empire/ colonialism themselves as well as queer folks involved in solidarity campaigns. However, the stories of queers involved in combatting empire are often left untold. This both results in, and is fueled by, the false notion that anti-imperialism and queer liberation are “separate issues.” The result is that the complex ways in which gender and sexuality are intertwined with empire, militarism, and settler colonialism, often get ignored. This anthology, Queering Anti-Imperialism, will be dedicated to telling the stories of queer resistance against imperialism and colonialism, as well as queering the ways in which we think about empire.
The terms “empire” and “imperialism” refer to many different kinds of violent practices. We welcome proposals about queer people involved in campaigns against any of these kinds of practices. These practices can include, but are not limited to: settler colonialism, non-settler colonialism, war and militarism, US/ European cultural hegemony, globalization and neoliberalism, economic sanctions, gentrification, military occupation, US “aid” to repressive regimes, international “development” work, incursion on and destruction of communities by invasive NGOs as well as academic researchers and other “well-intentioned” outsiders, water and land privatization, resource extraction, ecological destruction, cultural assimilation, and “population control.”
We are interested in non-fiction pieces by queer writers involved in anti-imperial struggles. We are open to a variety of formats, including but not limited to: personal stories, critical essays, poetry, and other formats. Pieces may be more personal (focusing on ones’ own experiences) or analytic (focusing more broadly on gender and sexuality issues in anti-imperialist struggles.) Preference will be given to queer authors who are struggling against or have experienced imperialism or colonialism themselves, however queers who are heavily involved in solidarity work are also encouraged to submit. We especially encourage submissions from trans, intersex and gender non-conforming writers. Any proposal must meet the following criteria in order to be considered:
- The proposal must foreground experiences of queer people and/or focus on an analysis of gender and sexuality within anti-imperialist struggles
- The proposal must focus on anti-imperialist/ anti-colonial struggles.
- The proposal must be non-fiction.
- The author must either identify outside of western categories of gender and sexuality or they must identify somewhere under the queer, trans, or lgbti umbrellas. In other words, we are not seeking submissions from non-trans straight people.
- While we encourage proposals that take a critical, theoretical approach, the piece must be accessible to a general audience.
Possible topics could include (but are in no ways limited to):
- Race, empire, and gendered body policing
- Decolonizing “queer”/ the idea of “queer” as a western label/ “queer” identities outside the west
- Pinkwashing, homonationalism, and Israeli apartheid
- Gay gentrification and queer resistance
- Queerness and the colonized colonizer
- Queers of privilege doing solidarity work, and how this complicates notions of allyship
- Queerness and notions of family and belonging in diasporic communities
- (Trans)gender, militarism, and the police/ security state
- Indigenous resistance and western notions of gender and sexuality/ Indigenous notions of gender and sexuality
- Two-spirit resistance and queer settler colonialism
- “Single-issue” politics and LGBT complicity in empire
- Military violence, trauma, and healing in queer spaces
- Homonationalism and LGBT identification with the nation-state
- Gay “inclusion” in militarism
- Liberal/ NGO “saviors” and colonized queers
- Queer (in)visibility in anti-war and anti-colonial movements
- Sexual and bodily politics of colonialism and empire
- Queers and the impact of US leftists’ complicity with “anti-imperialist” repressive regimes (i.e. Iran, Syria)
- Iranian queers, economic sanctions, and the threat of war with the US/ Israel
- Queer perspectives on decolonizing the environmental movement
- Gender, sexuality and the nation-state, nationalism and national liberation discourse
- And, of course, queer perspectives on any of the above-mentioned forms of imperial violence
This is a call for abstracts/ proposals. Please submit: (a) proposal/ abstract (max 800 words), plus (b) biographical statement (max 300 words) by September 12th, 2012. We should be clear that we do not yet have a publishing deal, but we are in the process of assembling a manuscript to submit to publishers.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries/ submissions: queeringantiimperialism@gmail.com
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