CFP: Chapters for "Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences through the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities"

Chapters are invited for Transgender India, drawing on scholarship in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, covering topics from antiquity to the present. Contributions may explore a range of Indian transgender identities and experiences—including but not limited to individuals identifying as third gender, hijra, sadhin, MTF, FTM, and nonbinary. A sampling of confirmed chapters includes:

• “Reconceptualizing Identities through Transmasculinity in India: A Gender Revisionist Approach,” Rubina Iqbal, PhD, Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
• “Contradiction/Concurrence of Castration and the Fertile Phallus: A Transgender Reading of Ancient Indian Literature,” Ruman Sutradhar, PhD, Department of Political Science, Samuktala Sidhu Kanhu College, Alipurduar, West Bengal, India
• “Understanding the Psychosocial Needs of Hjira Living with HIV in Hyderabad, India,” Sameena Azhar, PhD, LCSW, MPH, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University, New York, New York, USA
• “Queer Futurities in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” Anna Guttman, PhD, Department of English, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
• “Sikhandi to Manobi: An Exploration of (Trans)Human Emotions through a Critical Study of Selected Transgender Biographies,” Bosudha Bandyopadhyay, PhD, Department of International Languages, Chitkara University, Punjab, India
• “The Colonial Censu(re/us) of Transbodies in Nineteenth-Century South Asia,” Shane P. Gannon, PhD, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, Alberta, Canada
• “Guaranteeing Full Citizenship to Gender Minorities in India,” Sangeetha Sriraam, PhD, Department of Law, School of Legal Studies, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu, India
• “Queens in the Future: Social Factors and Mental Health of Hijra in the Face of Global Issues of Sexual and Gender Minorities,” Jaqueline Gomes de Jesus, PhD, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• “Sustainable Development with Trans-inclusiveness in Indian Families, Education System, and Employment Leading a Ripple Effect across the Nation,” Pooja Varma, PhD, Department of Psychology, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Karnataka, India
• “Victor Turner’s Theory of Liminality: A Tool to Study the Lives of Deirdre N. McCloskey, Paula Grieg, and Living Smile Vidya,” Ramya Sampath, PhD, Department of English and Foreign Languages, SRM University, Tamil Nadu, India
• “Differs in Dignity: Shame, Privacy, and Law,” Vaibhav Saria, PhD, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• “Vulnerability of Transgender Women and Hijra and Access to HIV/TB Services in India during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Apurvakumar Pandya, PhD, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
• “Indian Influences and the Transgender Imagination in a Chinese Literary Classic: Journey to the West (西遊記),” Peter I-min Huang, PhD, Department of English, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Chapters 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, South Asian studies, transgender studies, and visual arts. Proposals to write the introduction to the book are especially welcome.

Interested authors should send a 300-word abstract, 200-word bionote, and sample of a previously published chapter or article to Dr. Douglas Vakoch at [email protected] by October 1, 2020. Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by October 30, 2020. First drafts of full chapters are due by February 1, 2021, and final versions are due April 1, 2021. Preference will be given to authors who have completed their doctorates. Only previously unpublished works will be considered. This book will foster a dialogue across academic disciplines, as authors cross-reference each other’s chapters, comparing and contrasting their understandings of transgender experience and identity in India. We seek a broadly international group of scholarly contributors.

Dr. Douglas Vakoch, the editor of Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences through the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, has published sixteen earlier books through scholarly presses such as Cambridge University Press.  His latest book is Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature.