*CFP* CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS, MENSTRUATION RESEARCH NETWORK

In collaboration with the Menstruation Research Network, this one-day event at the University of Sheffield will focus on media narratives about menstruation and related topics. It will bring together researchers in the fields of journalism and media studies, individual advocates, and representatives from NGOs. The event will take place at the University of Sheffield on 22nd October 2021, but this will be changed to an online format if necessary.

We are delighted to announce that our keynote speaker will be Annika Waheed. Annika is a non-clinical lecturer for Barts Health Trust in London and suffers from Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, a condition that she describes as ‘PMS’s woefully misunderstood Satanic sibling’. She advocates, educates, and raises awareness via her Instagram page on which she candidly records her journey living with PMDD.

The day will also include 15-minute papers and workshops. Papers/workshop sessions are free to explore any type of media (such as blogs, zines, podcasts, apps, websites, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, newspapers, magazines, radio, cinema).

*CFP* "GLOBAL TV IMAGES OF FEMALE MASCULINITY IN THE 2010S", VOL. 15., NO. 3., THE SPECIAL FORUM OF COMMUNICATION, CULTURE AND CRITIQUE

In the past decade, TV representations of female masculinity have proliferated and diversified worldwide. Notable examples include the white lesbian landowner Anne Lister in the historical drama Gentleman Jack (BBC/HBO, UK/USA, 2019-), the African American lesbian Denise in the web series Master of None (Netflix, USA, 2015-2017), the tomboyish participants of the girl group elimination shows Youth With You 2 (iQiyi, China, 2020) and Sisters Who Make Waves (Mango TV, China, 2020), the cross-dressing female protagonist raised as a boy in the drama Bromance (SETTV, Taiwan, 2015-2016), the butch lesbian beauty contest segment, “That’s My Tomboy,” in the Philippine daytime variety show It’s Showtime (ABS-CBN, Philippines, 2009-), and the Taiwanese-American K-pop girl band member, Amber Liu who has been famous for her gender-nonconforming persona and homosocial-natured group singing and dancing performances on Asian TV in the early 2010s. 

Along with this surge in masculine female TV culture, there has been a growing body of scholarship on media and public imaginaries of female masculinity in different geo-locales since the late 1990s. J. Jack Halberstam (1998) famously noted that “far from being an imitation of maleness,” female masculinity is one of many “alternative masculinities” that manifests a continuum of various masculine traits and identities embodied or enacted by cis-females, such as tomboyism and butchness, the definitions and calibration of which are often socioculturally and racially modelled (p. 1). Moreover, the culturally specific understandings and imaginaries of female masculinity have been important threads in world gender studies and global queering theory, as research by Helen Leung (2002), Audrey Yue (2008), Todd A. Henry (2020), and others has discussed.

*CFP* "SEXO, GÉNERO, SEXUALIDAD Y COMUNICACIÓN", VOL. 30 Nº 5, PROFESIONAL DE LA INFORMACIÓN

Profesional de la Información solicita estudios de investigación de vanguardia, ensayos teóricos y artículos de revisión crítica original para un número especial dedicado a la Comunicación sobre sexo, género y sexualidad que se publicará en el Volumen 30, Número 5 (septiembre-octubre de 2021). También se considerarán artículos con un enfoque pedagógico, especialmente aquellos que dilucidan conceptos, tecnologías o procesos específicos.

Este número especial celebrará la pluralidad metodológica y teórica, con el objetivo de publicar una excelente colección de teorías e investigaciones que avancen el pensamiento sobre la comunicación de sexo, género y sexualidad.

A tal fin, el editor aceptará manuscritos que incluyan investigaciones que utilicen métodos científicos sociales cuantitativos y/o cualitativos; crítica de la retórica, de la cultura o de los medios, así como investigación creativa, especialmente si aporta avances teóricos.

*CFP* "SEX, GENDER, SEXUALITY AND COMMUNICATION", VOLUME 30, ISSUE 5, REVISTA PROFESIONAL DE LA INFORMACIÓN

Profesional de la Información seeks cutting-edge research studies, theoretical essays, and state-of-the-art critical review articles for a special issue dedicated to sex, gender, sexuality, and communication to be published in Volume 30, Issue 5 (September-October 2021) to be published in the journal. Articles with a pedagogical focus, especially those that elucidate specific concepts, technologies, or processes, will also be considered. This special issue will celebrate methodological and theoretical plurality, with the primary goal being to publish an excellent collection of research and theory that advances thinking about sex, genders, sexualities, and communication.

To that end, the editor will accept manuscripts featuring research using quantitative and/or qualitative social scientific methods; critique-oriented methods such as rhetorical, cultural, or media criticism; and scholarship that is highly creative, especially as it advances theory.

 

Manuscripts submitted for consideration must clearly advance communicative aspects of one of the following special issue areas:

*CFP* LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND QUEER STUDIES INTEREST GROUP, HYBRID 71ST ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

ICA: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies Interest Group

The hybrid 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference (ICA) to be held in Denver between 27-31 May 2021.

 

In the process of opening new spaces for discussions of queer sexuality, the internet and digital technologies have facilitated, a process of connectivity that have created important nodes of identification, belonging, and support (Pullen, & Cooper, 2010). These spaces, in different parts of the world, symbolically, have evolved to become collective sites of resistance to sources of oppressive power, encouraging the active exchange of queer ideologies across distant spaces and facilitating the formation of ‘queer counterpublics’ (Soriano, 2014).

The interconnectivity made possible by internet technologies enables the swift exchange of queer ideologies and networks across ways of life in distant spaces, where queer individuals ‘get to experience something of a queer community’ and obtain advice and information about a variety of queer issues (Fraser, 2010). As early as 2010, researchers Earl, Kimport, Prieto, Rush, & Reynoso (2010) found that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) movement, for instance, almost exclusively used online protest actions. 

*CFP* "TRICKSTERS, CROSS-DRESSERS: TRANSGENDER IDENTITY AND POLITICS, PRE-20TH CENTURY", CONFERENCE

Tricksters, Cross-Dressers: Transgender Identity and Politics, pre-20th century

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Virtual)

12 December 2020

It has been only recently that trans rights began to be widely discussed and researched across the academic world. The prevailing majority of existing research dealt mainly with issues and case studies emergent post-1900 – that is, rather recently in academic terms, and therefore, trans rights and related issues as a sphere of academic inquiry have sometimes been depicted as a “modern” concept. We hope we initiate a productive conversation on the notion of transgender identity as connected with the political world, pre-1900s so we find the roots and identify the history of this rich and long topic.

Yet, looking back at history, we encounter fascinating figures such as John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833), Chevalier D’Eon (1728-1810), Nadezhda Durova (1783-1866), and countless others. The figure of the cross-dressing shaman or spiritual healer, occupying a place of crucial importance in the community, is a common presence across many cultures.

*CFP* "TRANSGENDER INDIA: UNDERSTANDING HIJRAS AND SADHINS THROUGH THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES", EDITED BOOK

Chapters are invited for Transgender India, which examines hijras and sadhins from antiquity to the present, drawing on scholarship in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Contributions may explore a range of Indian transgender identities and experiences—including but not limited to individuals identifying as third gender, MTF, FTM, and nonbinary.

Chapters understanding hijras and sadhins from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to anthropology, art history, Asian studies, biology, cultural studies, economics, education, ethics, gender studies, geography, history, Indology, journalism, law, literary studies, media studies, medicine, musicology, philosophy, political science, popular culture, psychology, queer studies, religious studies, sociology, transgender studies, and visual arts. Proposals to write the introduction to the book are especially welcome.

A sampling of confirmed chapters includes:

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, SUPERMODELS OF THE WORLD: RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE AS INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON ONLINE SYMPOSIUM

Supermodels of the World: RuPaul's Drag Race as International Phenomenon symposium

25th September 2020

School of Arts and Media, University of Salford, UK

Depend on further developments, online participation may become our primary method for all to engage in this one day event. We will, of course, update accordingly.

Since its 2009 debut, RuPaul’s Drag Race has shifted from a niche American reality show anomaly to an award-winning global success. This one day symposium will examine its international reach with versions of the contest created in the UK, Thailand and Canada alongside, titular host, Rupaul having already hinted at further growth when teasingly asking journalists “how many countries are there?”.

As a major popular culture event, panels will look to ascertain whether Drag Race - as the dominant depiction of drag in this early part of the 21st Century - represents an expansion or the homogenization of this aspect of LGBTQ+ culture. For example, have the geographical diversions within this TV show (journeying from Cameroon to Northern Ireland, South Korea to Puerto Rico) provided an opportunity to showcase localized interpretations, performances or incarnations? Or has this all-conquering drag empire imposed its own hegemony.

*CFP* "TRASGENDER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY", EDITED BOOK

Chapter proposals are invited for the edited book Transgender Science and Technology. Ben Barres The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist provides insights into the lived experience of a prominent scientist who was transgender. This new book extends that work by fostering novel insights into science and technology by viewing them through specifically transgender perspectives. 

This volume is modeled after Dr. Vakoch’s earlier book Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature. Contributors to that book used major concepts from both ecology and gender studies to examine intimacy, connection, exclusion, identity, and emplacement. For example, these chapters examined Susan Stryker’s notion of trans identity as “ontologically inescapable,” Timothy Morton’s concept of “mesh” to explore the interconnectedness of all beings, Stacy Alaimo’s notion of “trans-corporeality” as a “contact zone” between humans and the environment, Judith Butler’s analysis of gender as “performative,” with those who are not “properly gendered” being seen as “abjects”—and Julia Serano’s contrasting rejection of gender as performance.