Queering Paradigms – serie

This edited volume focuses on a key notion in Queer Theory and activism: challenging, resisting and subverting contestations to the identitarian expression and performance of LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, intersex, queer/querying etc.) subjects. The chapters in this volume address queer bodies and spaces both transnationally and within specific contexts—including focus studies on the U.S.; Russia; China; Yemen; and the Anglophone Caribbean.Part I addresses queer and contested forms of lived experiences and embodiments such as trans* and non-binary bodies. Part II explores spaces of belonging and exemplifies contested and negotiated in/exclusion. Part III focusses on (socio-)legal spaces of belonging, Human Rights and legal activism. In line with QPs ethics of genial intergenerational exchange and support, this volume features prominently the voices of doctoral and early-career researchers.

Queering Paradigms VIII brings together critical discourses on queer-feminist solidarity between Western, post-Soviet and post-socialist contexts. It highlights transnational solidarity efforts against homophobia, transphobia and misogyny. It engages grass-roots activists and community organizers in a conversation with scholars, and shows that the lines between these categories are blurry and that queer theorists and analysts are to be found in all spheres of queer-feminist culture. It highlights that queer paradigms and theories are born in street protests, in community spaces, in private spheres, through art and culture as well as in academia, and that the different contexts speak to each other.This anthology presents some of the radical approaches that emerge at the intersection of activism, community organizing, art and academia, through transnational exchange, migration and collaborations. It is a celebration of alliances and solidarities between activism, community building, art, culture and academic knowledge production. Yet, the collected work also brings forward the necessary critique of Western hegemonies involved in contemporary queer-feminist solidarity activism and theory between the ‘East’ and ‘West.’ It is an important thinking about, thinking through and thinking in solidarity and the East/West divide, setting new impulses to fight oppression in all its forms.

This is anthology brings together scholarly studies, creative writing, and images to critically discuss, question, and celebrate spirituality and religion from a queer perspective. The chapters closely analyse religious practices, scriptures, and institutions from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. They discuss religious teaching and care as spaces for queer community, showcasing the many ways in which queer identities, critiques, and lifestyles intersect with religion across geographies and histories. They also focus on the nexus between state, market, and religious institutions. The book looks at how queer people experience religion and spirituality around the world. It challenges the idea that religion and spirituality are separate from each other and shows how they affect people’s lives. It also looks at how social science and humanities-oriented queer studies can be changed to include religion and spirituality.

Queer Impact and Practices brings together chapters arising from the third annual Queering Paradigms conference. Queer Theory is still evolving and extending the range of its enquiry. It maps out new territories via radical contestations of the categories of gender and sexuality. This approach de-centers assumptions of heteronormativity, but at the same time critiques a new homonormativity. This book incorporates the work of queer theorists and queer activists who are seeking new boundaries to cross as well as new disciplines and social relations to queer. The sections of this book interrogate the impact of Queer Theory in studies of culture, nationalism, ethnography, linguistics, psychology, intimacy and activism. Chapters address contemporary theorizing about gay citizenship and ‘homonationalism’ as well as a critique of gay visibility. Other topics include the symbolics of queer subversion and transgression in performers who transgress gender and sexuality codes. Queer activists extend their analysis into the world of punk, Buddhist religious teaching and Native Studies. This book demonstrates that Queer Theory, as well as being a disposition, is now deployed by many researchers as a legitimate framework of analysis that questions many of the categories, constructs and relationships we encounter in twenty-first century society.