Call for Submissions
Special issue of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Taipei workshop
“Global Queer, Local Theories”
organized by Wei-cheng R. Chu
and Fran Martin
The recent ascendancy of queer
Asia, including both the vibrant cultures and activisms emerging throughout the
region and the global scholarly attention given to them, has been phenomenal.
It may be considered among the most exciting developments in the field of
transnational queer studies in recent years. However, the more queer Asia draws
attention and gets reported, documented, and analyzed in the global field, the
more aware we become of a certain lack in the existing literature: a lack of
sustained attention to the prolific local theories which have been there
all along as an indispensable part of the emergent queer formations.
Despite sometimes being dismissed as no more than transmutations or
applications of the “original” sexuality theories developed in the
metropolitan center, these local theoretical discourses serve significant needs
of local queer scenes. They have not only been a driving force behind the
development of Asian queer cultures and activisms, but have also enabled a
critical perspective on these formations that influences their future directions.
Indeed, the local effects of these theories are so conspicuous that ignoring
them risks being blind to the obvious.
If one compares the local theories influential in a particular place with the
metropolitan studies concerning that same location, one sometimes discovers
major incongruities between their respective concerns. Clearly it is not just
the metropolitan theories that deserve our attention—now
more than ever in this nascent age of globalization, when transcultural
connections are arguably becoming less about links between margin and centre
and more about transverse linkages between and among local sites.
This special issue (along with the Taipei workshop) aims to bring out this
dialogic space within Queer Asia by inviting contributions addressing either
meta-critical analysis of local queer discourses in a specific region, or
locally situated queer analysis that is capable of making trans-local
connections (e.g. through a fully contextualized comparative framework).
If you wish to submit, please email an abstract of 500 words to both wcrchu@ntu.edu.tw and f.martin@unimelb.edu.au by June 15, 2006.
Those who are accepted for participation in the Taipei workshop (as part of the
Annual Conference of Taiwan Cultural Studies Association, to be held on January
6-7, 2007) will be notified by July 15, 2006. Full papers, which
will be subjected to the usual peer-reviewing process before acceptance for the
special journal issue, will need to be submitted by
?/span>