Special Issue 3: Feminism and the Medical Humanities
Guest Editors: Sherri L. Foster, Associate Professor of English, Chesapeake College, US
Jana Funke, Senior Lecturer in Medical Humanities, University of Exeter, UK
Founding Editor: Sally R. Munt, University of Sussex, UK
Deadlines: 1 page abstracts by February 1st 2018
Manuscript submission (7,000-9,000 words) by April 16th 2018
Publication: Autumn 2018
Please send abstracts to: sfoster2@washcoll.edu and/or j.funke@exeter.ac.uk
The Medical Humanities seeks to create lively dialogue between the humanities and social sciences, and medical understandings of health, wellbeing and the body. Recent work in the Medical Humanities has highlighted the need to draw on critical perspectives, including feminist thought, to develop more nuanced understandings of the ways in which health and wellbeing are constituted. At the same time, feminist thinkers and activists alike are continuing to challenge and expand attitudes towards biology and biomedical models. Drawing attention to the ways in which biomedical thinking can inscribe and reinforce gendered hierarchies, they also carve out new ways of incorporating the biological within feminist thought and action.
This special issue of the journal Feminist Encounters will bring together papers from a variety of disciplines and fields and from international perspectives to intervene in these debates. We will:
- offer a space to reflect critically on existing connections between feminist studies/activisms and the Medical Humanities
- identify, explore and build upon existing intersections between feminisms and the Medical Humanities within an international framework
- create new areas of dialogue between the Medical Humanities and feminism to illuminate how these areas may challenge and elucidate each other
- consider new methodologies in the Medical Humanities, from a feminist standpoint
Our aim is to provide a forum for the Medical Humanities to engage with feminist studies more directly, in order to ‘critically queer’ biomedical models of research.
We welcome contributions from all countries and relevant activist and disciplinary perspectives, such as literary studies, history, sociology, film studies, anthropology, law, art history and visual cultures, and philosophy. We particularly welcome submissions that deal with gender in relation to sexuality, race/ethnicity, disability, class, age, and other categories of difference. We also encourage submissions from outside of the Anglo/American arena.
Questions might include, but are not limited to, the following:
- How have the biological and biomedical been conceptualized within feminism and the Medical Humanities?
- To what extent can a feminist sensibility towards gender and intersectionality refine and expand understandings of health, wellbeing and the body within the Medical Humanities?
- What cultural forms of representation (e.g. literature, art, film, television) offer us insights into the ways in which the Medical Humanities are entwined with feminist thought and action?
- What roles do activisms play within feminism and the Medical Humanities, and how can activism productively engage with research and scholarship?
- To what extent can the emphasis on cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary exchange and collaboration inform feminist thinking and activism?
- How can feminist explorations of health and wellbeing invigorate debates within the Medical Humanities, and vice versa?
Feminist Encounters aims to promote excellence in feminist research. We welcome articles that engage with political and cultural issues, and that seek to challenge social norms of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, class and disability, and which promote themes of equality, diversity, and social justice.
Feminist Encounters encourages interdisciplinarity, and the use of feminist methodologies in research. Articles to be submitted should be grounded in the empirical and theoretical exploration of gender and its lived experience within a range of cultural contexts. We also welcome research on narrative, representation, and discourse that critically analyses the construction, maintenance and reinforcement of gendered normativities. The journal particular encourages articles that provide information on historical and current political struggles, activisms, and critical social engagements.
Articles to be submitted for peer review should be between 7,000-9000 words in length, including all references, footnotes, and accompanying material. If illustrations are included, please allow 250 words per figure and ensure that you have copyright permissions.
For enquiries about the special journal issue, please email the special journal editors via sfoster2@washcoll.edu andj.funke@exeter.ac.uk.
For general enquiries, please email to the managing editor via editorialfeminist@lectito.net.
For information on Lectito’s house style, see our electronic submission guidelines at
http://www.lectitojournals.com
