Call for Papers

鈥淕lobal Queer and Trans Class Relations鈥

Special Issue Editors

Emmanuel David, University of Colorado, Boulder

Matt Brim, College of Staten Island (CUNY)

This special issue of ELN is premised on the idea that queer and trans are inevitably intertwined听
with class, just as they are also inflected by race, caste, disability, and gender. The coeditors听
seek essays that explore the ways in which queer and trans people understand their听
overlapping and different positions within class relations and how they experience, manage, and听
resist the logics of capital (labor, productivity, accumulation, extraction, consumption, debt, etc).
We are especially interested in essays that examine queer and trans class relations in a听
transnational frame. Our goal is not to collect disparate examples from different/ 鈥渙ther鈥澨
geographic locations but rather to publish a set of articles that, together, cohere an听
understanding of queer and trans class analysis as a methodology for relating across and听
among sites of grounded, material experience. This special issue thus hopes to identify and give听
space to nascent conversations about emergent and potentially unorthodox queer-class frames听
of reference (e.g., South-South lenses; international queer studies formations).
This special issue builds on over three decades of scholarship in queer studies that has听
foregrounded queer-class intersections, including milestone conferences like the 1994 CLAGS听
conference Homo/Economics: Market and Community in Lesbian and Gay Life and the 2026听
CLAGS Queer-Class Relations Conference. The collection of essays is also indebted to work in听
the areas of queer Marxism (Liu 2015, 2023) and queer of color analysis, which takes up听
materialist critiques (with revision) and provides analytic strategies that disidentify with historical听
materialism (Ferguson 2003). In adjacent discussions in transgender studies, a field that is听
positioned structurally 鈥渁gainst Queer Theory鈥 in the academy (Keegan 2020), trans is often听
distinguished from queer on the basis of class, and there is an expanding body of work that听
explores the intersection of trans lives and materialist approaches, including trans-political听
economy (Irving & Lewis 2017) and trans Marxism (Ter谩n and Travis 2024). Finally, queer听
diasporic studies and decolonial queer studies have sought to provincialize queer theory (Liu听
2024) and to focus on theorizing from and across the Global South (Gomes Pereira 2019; Silva听
and Jacobo 2020). At this intersection, this special issue also extends trans critiques of听
economic imperialism (Namaste 2005) and recent work in 鈥渢ransnational queer materialism鈥澨
(Jaleel & Savc谋 2024). As we draw attention to queer and trans studies' stakes in political听
economy and critiques of capital, we seek essays tethered to individual and collective class听
histories and relations as they are lived.
听

Guiding Questions
鈼 How does careful attention to global queer and trans experience clarify but also听
obfuscate class contradictions?
鈼 In what ways does work at this intersection contribute to the ongoing reassessment of听
the fields of queer and trans studies?听
鈼 Thinking broadly about textual sources, empirical data, and interpretive methods, what听
concrete evidence/material experiences can be used to support work in this area?
鈼 How does cultural production (literature, art, performance) speak to this set of听
questions?


Potential Topics
The Global Queer and Trans Class Relations special issue editors invite contributions that听
explore topics on, but not limited to:听


鈼 Transnational networks of queer and trans solidarity
鈼 Transmisogyny as a classed phenomenon
鈼 Queer Marxism
鈼 Geographies of queer and uneven development (Global South, postsocialist, rural)
鈼 Latino/a/e queer-class fiction/cultural production
鈼 Translating class across queer communities
鈼 Sex work
鈼 Global racial capitalism
鈼 Transgender and HIV healthcare as a border issue
鈼 鈥淨ueer鈥 refugees and asylees
鈼 Labor and value
鈼 Class stratification in the international queer academy
鈼 Carceral geographies and trans/queer-class formations
鈼 Queer gentrification
鈼 Neoliberalism then and now in queer studies
鈼 Capitalism and queer resistance
鈼 Classed archives
鈼 Erotics of class crossover
鈼 Emergent forms and structures of queer-class relations
鈼 Queer and trans critiques of empire and economic imperialism
听

Timeline
Please submit essays of approximately 6,000-7,000 words by September 1, 2026. Submit听
manuscripts directly through Editorial Manager (http://www.edmgr.com/eln/). For more听
information about submissions, see Author Guidelines. Following external peer review, revised听
submissions will be due by mid-January 2027. The special issue will appear in October 2027听
(Vol. 65, No. 2).


This special issue will include an introduction by the Special Issue editors (Matt Brim, Executive听
Director of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at CUNY Graduate Center and Professor of听
Queer Studies at the College of Staten Island, and Emmanuel David, Associate Professor of听
Women & Gender Studies at 老九品茶)

听

鈥Genre, Past and Present鈥

Special Issue Editor

Audrey Jaffe, University of Toronto

Genre has traditionally been seen as a framework or series of frameworks for organizing texts (and other artworks) so they may be analyzed with some degree of precision, yet the meaning of the term has always been unstable. Disagreements arise around specific classifications, and the term has often been redefined or simply deployed, without explanation, in different ways. The novel, for instance, has been subject to numerous and diverging definitions, from (to name only a few) Gyorgy Lukacs to Mikhail Bakhtin to Ralph Rader to Priya Joshi. 听Such classifications, no matter how numerous, are familiar. To these, however, we may now add such new terms and innovations as auto-fiction; flash fiction; the blog and the tweet, as well as uncategorized (and perhaps uncategorizable) texts as Vauhini Vara Searches, which alters the genre of autobiography by constructing a life story from the archive of the author Google searches. Visual and streaming technologies have given us long-form television series such as The Wire; the short-form innovation of the tick-tock dance, and the podcast. As this list suggests, new historical moments and new technologies give rise to new forms that may rely for their structural foundations or appeal to readers on familiar ones, sometimes invoking specific ties with these earlier genres, sometimes taking up a position鈥攊mplicitly or explicitly鈥攁ligned with the past, opposed to the past, or as Thomas Beebee has argued, somewhere in the middle, between genres, both internally and externally.听 鈥淸A]ll literature makes itself interpretable by referring to what it is not,鈥 Beebee writes.听听

What kinds of relations exist between newer genres and traditional ones? How do newly innovative forms both depend on and revise familiar ones; how might the relation between the older and the newer help us understand the relation between past and present implicit in current works and the cultures that produced them? Is the idea of genre (either in general or in its particular manifestations) essentially nostalgic, looking back toward a world of fewer categories and greater stability, in the form of shared knowledge or agreed-upon aesthetic criteria? Or does the existence of genre and its theoretical traditions facilitate invention and innovation, giving writers and artists a shared background on which to draw?听 This special issue is interested in making explicit the temporal relations implicit in genre(s).听 Arguably, genres positioning themselves as 鈥渘ew鈥 invoke and rely on traditional or existing genres, either for purposes of self-definition (Beebee 鈥渨hat it is not鈥) or legitimization; an appeal to genre may be understood as an appeal to a certain kind of authority, whether embraced or rejected; it may also be a critique of such authority.听

This special issue will provide a forum for reflections on the relation between new generic formulations and traditional or existing ones. What is a project鈥攐r an author鈥攁ttachment to, or disenchantment from鈥攖he strictures traditionally associated with a particular genre or genre theory in any of its manifestations? I invite essays, creative work, and reflections on these issues, including broader explorations of ways in which the genre idea has been influenced by technological change, cultural and political events, and disciplinary transformations.听 I also welcome inquiries about related topics not mentioned here. 听Possible topics include but are not limited to:听

  • Continuities and Transformations: Is genre nostalgic? Do traditional genres serve as anchors for innovative work? Essays may consider the way the idea of genre in general and genres in particular have changed over time and analyze the significance of such change;听
  • Disciplines and Connections: Essays reflecting on the genre idea both within, between, and outside the disciplines of the traditional humanities, or an individual study that reaches across periods and cultures, with the goal of both exploring the concept and opening it up to new work and new meanings; this category would include essays considering the way in which apparently disparate genres may be seen as connected with and in dialogue with one another;听
  • Decolonization/Globalization: specific genres, as well as ideas of genre more generally, have been transformed by globalization in its various forms: political, economic, informational, aesthetic. Essays on the influence of globalization on specific genres or the idea of genre are invited.听
  • New work/reflections: examples of work that challenges traditional notions of genre, accompanied (if desirable) by authorial commentary. This category might (for example) 听include essays on the influence of AI or other technologies on specific genres or ideas of genre.听

Please submit abstracts of 350-500 words along with a brief bio to a.jaffe@utoronto.ca by August 1, 2026.听 Standard analytic essays should be 6,000-8,000 words in length; non-traditional work will vary in length and form (please include details in the abstract). 听Inquiries about essays or other kinds of submissions are welcome; please contact the editor by email. The deadline for completed work will be March, 2027; all submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process managed by鈥疎LN.听

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