Nations and Nationalism (Web)

While there is now a general awareness of the central role played by gender in the construction and lived experience of the nation, scholars of nationalism have been slow to incorporate sexuality – particularly LGBTQ sexualities – into the study of nations and national identity. Yet the presence of LGBTQ individuals problematises widely held assumptions about nations – both as categories of analysis and as categories of practice.

Homosexuality and nationality are often presented as being mutually exclusive, with ‘national values’ invoked to legitimise anti-gay rhetoric, violence and discrimination. No nation-state guarantees LGBT citizens the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts and sexual citizenship has become a key battleground both within and across nation-state boundaries. While a number of nation-states present their tolerance of homosexuality as a core component of their identities, homonationalist practices are frequently used by nation-states to set themselves apart from and hierarchically above other nation-states in which LGBTQ sexualities are oppressed, diverting attention away from inequalities and discrimination at home. While one might think that sexual dissidents would choose to reject associations with the nation, the emergence of queer diasporas demonstrate that many LGBT people still seek out the benefits of membership of (quasi-)national groups, albeit often in innovative new forms.

While the ‘real world’ thus offers numerous examples of the relationship between nationalities and sexualities, the scholarly community has been slow to pay it sufficient attention. To help fill this gap, Nations & Nationalism, the only journal in the English-speaking world specifically devoted to the study of nationalism, plans to published a themed section on ‘Nationalities and sexualities’, comprising theoretical and empirical articles relating to – but not restricted to – the following themes:

• The nation and LGBTQ inclusion/exclusion

• Nationalism and sexual citizenship

• Nationalism and homophobia/homonationalism

• LGBTQ migration and diasporas

• Sexuality and ethno-national conflict

• Cultural representations of non-heteronormative sexualities within the nation

• LGBTQ rights within and across national borders

Please send an abstract of 200-300 words to Richard Mole (r.mole@ucl.ac.uk) by 1 September 2013. The Nations and Nationalism Editorial Board will then select those abstracts which it would like to be developed into full articles and be put through the review process. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at r.mole@ucl.ac.uk.

Dr Richard C. M. Mole
Senior Lecturer in Political Sociology
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
University College London, Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT

Source: Genus@genus.gu.se