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(Session at the II European Geographies of Sexualities Conference, Lisbon, September 5th – 7th)
Call for Papers
Convened by: Sandra Palma Saleiro (CIES-IUL, ISCTE, IUL-University Institute of Lisbon)
If, as it is assumed in the presentation of this conference, sexualities became a legitimate and significant area of geographical research, and one of the main characteristics of the studies of sexuality has been the production of a critical and reflexive knowledge, questioning hegemony and modes of sexualized power relationships, one of the hegemonies that should be added to other frequently referred to is the cissexuality or cisgender. Gender geographies still have mainly focused on normatively gendered men and women, neglecting the ways in which gender binaries can be contested and troubled (Browne, Nash and Hines, 2010). The appeal to the discourses and practices of transsexual and transgender people demonstrates the need to expand the understanding of the concepts of “sex” and “gender”, but also of other concepts that have been framed in a binary model of sex/gender, such as “sexual identity” and “sexual orientation”, because the ways they have been understood and operationalized do not reveal the gender and sexual diversity present in contemporary societies. It is thus important to discuss the ways in which trans people put into question the hegemonic conventions that bind sexed bodies, roles and expressions of gender, and gender and sexual experiences, pioneering the exploration of new approaches to geographies of gender and sexuality.
On the other hand, if trans identities trouble the binary models of sex and gender, these transgressions are material, cultural, social and spatially situated. As the work using empirical research in different geographical and social contexts have contributed equally to demonstrate, trans identities and gender expressions are not homogeneous and present diversity. It is therefore important to produce new understandings about the spatializing of gender and the creation of gender through socio-spatial relations; identify the particularities of the trans configurations and experiences in different geographical contexts (e.g. in many countries); or even identify the challenges and resistances encountered and experienced by trans people in the spaces and places they inhabit.
Papers can be submitted in Portuguese, English or Spanish to [log in to unmask].