Genre et reproduction

Gender and reproduction


Call for paper



Special Issue proposals: Gender & History

 

 

Gender & History is an international journal forthehistory of femininity and masculinity and of gender relations. This Call for Papers is aimed atscholars of the classical, medieval and early modern periods as well as modern and contemporary periods, and internationally, in order to offer chronological and geographical breadth.

 

For most of human history, the biological functions of sexed bodies (male/female) have been, and still are, necessarily involved in reproduction. However, the ways in which these functions have been understood, and themselves inscribed,with multiple layers of gendered scientific, social and cultural meanings is a key theme ingender history. As Linda Martin Alcoff put it

 

reproduction is part of the web that constructs gender and sexuality, along with the specificities of culture andhistory, and it is a factor whose influence over gender can be altered and whose significance can be increased or decreased according to cultural context’ (Alcoff, 2013). 

 

This Special Issue intends to explore the links between reproduction and gender, and the ways in which these linkshave been assumed, negotiated, and/or challengedover space and time. The intention is to recognise, andgo beyond, traditional heteronormative frameworks, considering the extent to which understandings and experiences of sex, sexuality and gender identity also shaped discourses and experiences of gender and reproduction. Gender & Historyseeks to provide chronological and geographical scope, and thus, we would like to be clear that we welcome papers from any historical period or location. 

 

Papers are invited which consider, at different points in history and different locations, or transnationally:

•The ways in which gendered understandings of masculine and feminine havebeen developed from and/or inscribed on sexed bodiesin the context of reproduction.

•The implications, meanings and challenges for women of living with the possibilities of their reproductive bodies (menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause) and how societies and individuals have responded 

•Conversely the implications, meanings and challenges for menof reproductive norms. 

•The role of various institutions, such as religious institutions and the law, in moulding, upholding or contesting gender expectations in relation toreproduction 

•Institutional and cultural pressures relating to demographic concerns, for example, pronatalism, antinatalism, and the tensions with reproductive autonomy

•The ways in which societies have establishedhierarchies of reproductive bodies within and according to raceand ethnicity, religion, social class, abilityand disability.

•Biopower and biopolitics in the context of gender and reproduction. 

•The relationship between sexuality and reproduction

•Theways in which medical understandings of reproduction, including non-Western healing practices,have developed and been challenged through a gendered lens

•The experiences of enslaved or unfree peoples relating to gender and reproduction
•Inter-generational or interpersonal sex and gender-based issues relating to violence, trauma, conflict or diseases impacting reproduction

•Gendered representations and experiences of reproduction, including in education, communityand family (or absence of family)

•Ways of approaching the history of reproduction which challenge the conventional binary (hierarchical, oppositional, heteronormative) across space and time, including but not limited to people who have undergone gender reassignment.

•The economic history of gender and reproduction

•The materiality of reproduction

 

Authors should be aware that the journal is working to a strict timeline for the Special Issue, and should consider this before submitting an abstract or paper. The timeline is outlined at the bottom of the call for papers. Submitted papers will go throughthe journal’s peer review system and, as with any article, there is no guarantee of publication.

 

The deadline for abstracts of proposed papers is 29 March 2019 at 5pmGMT. Please send abstracts by email to rosemary.elliot@glasgow.ac.uk or by post to Dr Rosemary Elliot, room 320, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G61 4JJ. Queries should also be addressed to Dr Elliot. The Special Issue will be edited by Dr Rosemary Elliot and DrZubin Mistry, University of Edinburgh. 

 

Timeline 

• Abstracts to SI editors 29 March, 2019
• Deadline for full submissions to SI editors (papers submitted on ScholarOne) to go through peer review 20September, 2019
• Contributions in progress to Gender &HistoryEditors 1 March, 2020
• Edited MS, illustrations and permissions to Gender & HistoryUK office 31 May, 2020
• Publication October 2020