CFP: Chapter Proposals for "Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on the Environment"

Chapter proposals are invited for the edited book Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on the Environment, due by May 15, 2016. This volume will explore the intersection between transgender studies and ecology, with contributions from an international group of scholars representing a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including but not limited to such fields as philosophy, gender studies, environmental studies, literary criticism, history, religious studies, women’s studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, geography, and political science. Proposals representing the diversity of the world's philosophical traditions are especially welcome.

Interested authors should send a 300-word abstract, 200-word biography, and sample of a previously published chapter or article to [email protected] by May 15, 2016. First drafts of full chapters (8,000 words) are due by September 1, 2016, and final versions are due November 1, 2016. Both transgender and cisgender contributors are welcome. Preference will be given to authors who have completed their doctorates. Only previously unpublished works will be considered.

Confirmed contributors include:

• Foreword, Susan Stryker, Ph.D., University of Arizona, USA
• Preface, Greta Gaard, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – River Falls, USA
• “‘The Bog is in Me’: Transecology and The Danish Girl,” Elizabeth Parker, Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• “Posthuman Intimacy in Trans Cinema,” Wibke Straube, Ph.D., Karlstad University, Sweden
• “Theorizing Transgender and Transhuman Possibilities: Empathy and Ecology in Élisabeth Vonarburg’s Le Silence de la Cité,” Anna Bedford, Ph.D., St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA
• “Transsexual/Transgender Survivors of Eco-apocalypse: New Perspectives on Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve,” Julia Tofantšuk, Ph.D., Tallinn University, Estonia
• “Ominous Foreboding: Transsexual Eco-prophecies in Clark’s (Bekederemo’s) ‘Ivbie’ and Okara’s The Fisherman’s Invocation,” Idom T. Inyabri, Ph.D., University of Calabar, Nigeria
• “Yu-hong Chen’s ‘In-between’ Ecopoetics and Transgender Studies,” Peter I-min Huang, Ph.D., Tamkang University, Taiwan
• “Transgender Discourse in Ancient Mythology and Religious Texts: How Nature Influenced Representation,” Purbita Chowdhury, Jadavpur University, India and Ashish Kumar Ghosh, Ph.D., Centre for Environment and Development, India
• “Complimenting Contradictions of Gender Dualism: A Study on the Geopolitics of Binary Gender Ecology in Hinduism,” Swapna Gopinath, Ph.D., University of Kerala, India, Sony Jalarajan Raj, Ph.D., MacEwan University, Canada, and Soumya Jose, Ph.D., VIT University, India
• “Gendercrossing at the Frontier: Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s Transgender Memoirs in the Alborz Mountains,” Mat Fournier, Ph.D., Ithaca College, USA
• “Trans-Appalachia: Roadmap to an Unromantic Relationship with the Mountains,” Izzy Broomfield, Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY), USA and Theresa L. Burriss, Ph.D., Radford University, USA
• “Sexuate Ecologies and the Landmarking of Transgender Cultural Heritage,” Nicole Anae, Ph.D., Central Queensland University, Australia
• “Transgender: An Expanded View of the Ecological Self,” Gail Grossman Freyne, LL.B., Ph.D., The Family Therapy & Counselling Centre, Australia
• “Cut Sex: TransXenoEstroGenesis,” Eva Hayward, Ph.D. and Adela C. Licona, Ph.D., University of Arizona, USA
• “Theorizing Trans-species Affects through Ecological Science Practice,” Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, Ph.D., Alpen-Adria Universitaet, Graz, Austria and University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

The relationship between gender and the environment has been studied extensively, with much attention given to the problems of relying on rigid dualities such as male/female and nature/culture. This volume seeks to provide novel insights into ecological and environmental issues by drawing on specifically transgender perspectives. Proposals that explicitly critique cisnormativity and cissexism are especially welcome. For purposes of this volume, the meaning of transgender will follow GLAAD’s definition: “Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate. Gender identity is a person's internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or someone outside of that gender binary). For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match.”

The editor of Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on the Environment, Douglas Vakoch, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, as well as general editor of Lexington Books’ Ecocritical Theory and Practice Series. Vakoch’s earlier edited books include Ecofeminism and Rhetoric: Critical Perspectives on Sex, Technology, and Discourse (2011), Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature (2012), and (with Fernando Castrillón) Ecopsychology, Phenomenology, and the Environment: The Experience of Nature (2014).