Call for Papers

The main focus will be devoted to questions of decoloniality and its meaning for nordic-based Trans Studies and trans politics. The conference will engage with this important topic in Trans Studies and invites papers and posters devoted to the particularity of this debate for the Nordic context, as e.g. inner-nordic colonialisation of Saami and Inuit, reflections on transgender terminologies, anglocentricity and cultural dissonances with the Scandinavian context and intersections between transgender politics, ecology, race, nationalism and religion. Furthermore does this topic include questions of mobility, nationality, migration, and border politics as well as their affects and interactions with trans lives. Also the symposium will be devoted to questions of research collectivity for Transgender Studies scholars based in or affiliated with the Scandinavian context.

The symposium format will explore unconventional forms as well as avoid parallel sessions to enhance collective forms of discussion. Exchange rather than presentations and longer lectures will stand in the centre of the event. We will engage in different workshop activities, shorter presentation formats (apprx. 10 min.) as well as poster presentations.

The 3-day symposium brings together scholars working in the field of Transgender Studies. Transgender Studies presents an interdisciplinary field of inquiry into the experiential, intellectual and political knowledge production on gender-nonconforming embodiment and its intersectional materialities. The symposium is a continuation of three previous network meetings and conferences organized by Gender Studies/Media Studies, Turku University (2015); The Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University & Gender Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm (2014) as well as Tema Genus, Linköping University (2009). The 4th  Nordic Transgender Studies Symposium is hosted by the Centre for Gender Studies/Centrum för genusforskning at Karlstad University, Sweden.

Registration for the symposium will open from up mid-May 2016. Please check on: /en/cgf or look out for further announcements of the event.

The deadline for abstracts is extended till May 28th, 2016. For presentations and poster we welcome submissions of a max. 300 word abstract and max. 200 word bio (incl. your email and full name) send to wibke.straube@kau.se.

Please indicate in your abstract whether you apply for a presentation or a poster. Please send your submission with the email subject line “nordic trans conference”. The abstract and bio will be circulated to the participants shortly before the symposium and published on the conference website. Priority will be given to papers within the thematic framework of the symposium devoted to “decoloniality” yet also other topics will be considered. Poster submissions are open topic.