Queer and Trans Studies Network Panel (GSA 2021)

GSA 2021
Queer and Trans Studies Network Panel

Trends in Queer German Studies

Threads of queer and trans theory have inflected German Studies research for more than two decades, building on the advancements in mostly anglophone queer theory of the late 1980s and 1990s. Theoretical approaches typically focus on two discrete yet related areas: (1) a methodology for literary, filmic, and cultural analysis, and (2) a productive practice. The former most often has taken numerous approaches, ranging from queer textual interpretations, recovering LGBTQIA2S narratives, characters, and authors or explorations of sexual science in the 19th and early 20th centuries to theorizations of queer spatiality and temporality. The latter is tied to scholar-activist-centred work inside and outside the academy. 

For its inaugural CFP to feature presentations at the 2021 GSA conference (September 30 to October 3, 2021), the GSA’s Queer and Trans Studies Network seeks paper proposals that highlight trends in today’s German Studies scholarship that understands queer beyond questions of lesbian and gay identity and as a framework to interrogate critically socio-cultural, political, and historical pressures of our times. Taking a cue from Michael Warner’s call that the ethical imperative of queer theory is to critique existing structures, not just heterosexuality and heterosexual society, we seek approaches to notions of queerness across media, cultural traditions, and historical periods of the German-speaking world.

Please submit ca. 300-word abstracts and brief bios to Kyle Frackman (kyle.frackman@ubc.ca) and Simone Pfleger (pfleger@ualberta.ca) by January 31, 2021. 

The GSA Queer and Trans Studies Network is collectively organized by Kyle Frackman (University of British Columbia), Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia), Laurie Marhoefer (University of Washington), Simone Pfleger (University of Alberta), Carrie Smith (University of Alberta), and Faye Stewart (University of North Carolina Greensboro).