Trans Sci Fi 2023 : Trans Science Fiction

*** DEADLINE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 20, 2023 ***

The response to our earlier CFP was so strong that we are expanding our edited volume into The Handbook of Transgender Science Fiction, and we welcome additional chapters examining science fiction novels, short stories, YA literature, graphic novels, comics, films, television, games, material culture, and other media.

Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to the Dropbox folder at https://bit.ly/Transgender_Science_Fiction no later than October 20, 2023.

We have confirmed contributors from fifteen countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Türkiye, UK, and USA—including:

• Foreword. Manjula Padmanabhan, India, author of The Island of Lost Girls and Harvest
• Preface. Roz Kaveney, UK, author of From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film
• Chapter 1. “Organ/ic Gender and Trans*-planted Selves in Manjula Padmanabhan’s The Island of Lost Girls and Harvest,” M.A. Miller, PhD, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington State University, USA
• Chapter 2. “Gender in/on the Brain: Plasticity and Non-Human Transness in Chi Ta-wei’s Novel The Membranes,” Alberto Poza Poyatos, MA, Department of Arts and Humanities, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain and Gabriel Remy-Handfield, PhD, Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University, Australia
• Chapter 3. “Exploring Transgender Identities through African Mythologies in Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon and Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater,” Gibson Ncube, PhD, Department of Modern Foreign Languages, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Chapter 4. “Queer Fusion Technologies and the Monsters We (Do Not) See in Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet and Bitter,” Oluwadunni Talabi, PhD, and Corina/Cori Wieser-Cox, MA, Linguistics and Literary Studies Department, University of Bremen, Germany
• Chapter 5. “Rivers Solomon’s Utopian Postnaturalism,” Michael Mayne, PhD, Queer Studies Department and English Department, Denison University, USA
• Chapter 6. “Towards a Latin American Queer Feminist Cli-Fi through Trans Representations: From Caribbean Afro-Futurism to Neo-Gauchesca,” Victoria Jara, PhD, Departments of Languages and Cultures, Film Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, University of Western Ontario, Canada
• Chapter 7. “Speculative Disidentifications: Multiple Gender and Multiplication of Species in the Novels La comemadre by Roque Larraquy, La mucama de Omicunlé by Rita Indiana, and Ornamento by Juan Cárdenas,” Cristián Opazo, PhD, Facultad de Letras, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile; Ignacio Pastén Lopez, MA, Latin American, Iberian and Latin Cultures Program (LAILaC), City University of New York (CUNY), USA
• Chapter 8. “Transgender Body Politics and Ancestral Knowledge: Transgender Roles in Teresa P. Mira de Echevarria’s ‘Les Pi’Yemnautas,’” Mónica Ayala-Martínez, PhD, Department of Modern Languages, Denison University, USA
• Chapter 9. “Speaking a Different Language: Translation and Gender Self-Identification in Marsha Wells’ Murderbot Series,” Casey A. Cothran, PhD, Department of English, Winthrop University, USA
• Chapter 10. “Transgender Self-Determination and Legal Personhood in Ann Leckie’s Translation State,” David M. Higgins, PhD, Department of Humanities and Communication, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide, USA
• Chapter 11. “‘Truth is a matter of the imagination’: Redefining Vulnerability and Revisioning the Politics of War and the Poetics of Transgender Identities in The Left Hand of Darkness,” Khamsa Qasim, PhD, Department of English, International Islamic University, Pakistan
• Chapter 12. “Challenging Conventions and Shaping Identity: A Comparative Analysis of Transgender Narratives in Ninefox Gambit and The City in the Middle of the Night,” Lenka Filipova, PhD, English Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Chapter 13. “Identity in Flux: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Transition in Chana Porter’s The Seep,” Jamiee Cook, MA, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA and Maite Urcaregui, PhD, Department of English and Comparative Literature, San José State University, USA
• Chapter 14. “Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story: An Inquiry into Modern Technologies in Transing Gender(s),” Muhsin Yanar, PhD, Department of Translation and Interpretation, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Türkiye
• Chapter 15. “Transforming Monstrous Bodies in Adam Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us,” Todd G. Nordgren, PhD, Director of LGBTQ+ Programs and Services, Wellesley College, USA
• Chapter 16. “Reactionary and Recuperative Readings of Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde,” Mike Stack, PhD, Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
• Chapter 17. “Euphoria, Dysphoria, Genre, and Body-Swapping in The Skin I Live In and Sense8,” Allison Rittmayer, PhD, Department of English, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, USA
• Chapter 18. “Hormonal Pit-Fall: Felker-Martin’s Manhunt and the Sci-fi Horror of Trans Identity,” Ben Woodard, PhD, Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Germany
• Chapter 19. “Trans Contagion and Human—Pig Entanglement in Torrey Peters’ Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones,” Chung-Hao (Richard) Ku, PhD, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
• Chapter 20. “A Missy and Many Masters: Trans* Regen(d)eration in Doctor Who,” Jonathan Devine, PhD, School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Australian National University, Australia
• Chapter 21. “New Earth, New Body, New Humans: Trans Aesthetics and Tactile Encounters in Doctor Who,” Paige Macintosh, PhD, School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History, Victoria University of Wellington—Te Herenga Waka, New Zealand
• Chapter 22. “Unpacking Time Loops in See You Yesterday,” Joshua Bastian Cole, PhD, Department of Performing and Media Arts, Cornell University, USA
• Chapter 23. “A Trans-ing of Liminal Gender in Michael Faber’s Under the Skin,” Nicole Anae, PhD, Department of Literary and Cultural Studies, Central Queensland University, Australia
• Chapter 24. “David Bowie and Chameleon Aesthetics as a Transgender Science Fiction Morphogenesis: The Disruption of Musical Theatrical Performance and the Reinvention of Inquiring Personas,” Paulo da Silva Quadros, PhD, School of Communications and Arts, University of São Paulo, Brazil
• Chapter 25. “‘Like hair colour’: Transbody Fluidity and Wish Fulfillment in The Runaways and Other Comics,” Pritesh Chakraborty, PhD, Department of English, Acharya Sukumar Sen Mahavidyalaya, India
• Chapter 26. “‘Not as before’: Sir Tristran’s Trans* Variance as Queer Body Positivity in Camelot 3,000,” Gabriel Schenk, DPhil, and Mercury Natis, MA, Department of Language and Literature, Signum University, USA
• Chapter 27. “‘As real a girl as anyone’: Subverting the Superhero Trope in April Daniels’ Dreadnought,” Anamarija Šporčič, PhD, Department of English, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

We are committed to including a broadly international group of scholarly contributors.

The editor’s previous books include Ecofeminist Science Fiction (2021), Transgender India (2022), Transecology (2021), Xenolinguistics (2024), Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond (2021), and The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature (2023).

This is a volume of literary, film, and media theory and criticism guided by both transgender studies and science fiction studies. To be competitive, abstracts must:

Show how transgender studies and science fiction studies can each provide perspectives typically overlooked, ignored, or downplayed by the other field.
Engage one or more key scholarly works from both transgender studies and science fiction studies, demonstrating the value of diverse approaches to analyzing literature, film, and other media. (If you do not list specific writings from both transgender studies and science fiction studies that you will draw upon, you have not addressed this point.)
As the result of this dialogue between transgender studies and science fiction studies, provide insights into literature, film, and other media that neither transgender studies nor science fiction studies can offer by itself.
Any abstract that does not explicitly address the above three points in depth will likely be rejected.

Solid first drafts of full chapters are due by February 1, 2024, and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due April 1, 2024. At least one author of each chapter must have already completed their doctorate. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered.

As you search for scholarly journals to support your analysis, good places to start for science fiction studies include Extrapolation, Science Fiction Studies, Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, MOSF Journal of Science Fiction, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Fafnir—Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research. In transgender studies, helpful journals include TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, International Journal of Transgender Health, Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, and Journal of Gender Studies.

Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as Word documents, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your biography file, or there will be no way to contact you.