Research on Diversity in Youth Literature

Call for Papers: Research on Diversity in Youth Literature 2.1 – Special Issue on Queer Futurities in Youth Literature

RDYL 2.1 will be guest edited by Dr. Angel Daniel Matos (San Diego State University) and Dr. Jon Michael Wargo (Boston College). RYDL is a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal hosted by St. Catherine University’s Master of Library and Information Science Program and University Library.

Despite recent institutional changes that have altered the legal and socioeconomic status queer people in the United States (i.e. United States v. Windsor in 2013 and Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015), individuals in these communities continue to encounter discrimination, violence, and death based on their gender and/or sexual orientation. The 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting and the stark rise in murders of trans people of color, for instance, are just a few of the events that have disrupted this misguided sense of utopia instilled by institutional change. Furthermore, these and other events have brought into question whether it is possible for queerness to link to notions of futurity.

In considering this climate of violence and prejudice, this call for papers asks: What is the role of queer futurity in contemporary children’s and young adult literature, especially since many texts in these fields are written with a utopic, future-oriented sensibility? How does youth literature, inclusive of queer themes, frame and enable readings of the future? Are these future-oriented texts politically and affectively viable, or are they normative and misguided in their approach? We seek articles that examine how recent children’s and young adult texts approach, problematize, or justify the link between queerness and futurity. Furthermore, we are interested in articles that examine both the present and future of queer representations in children’s and young adult literature, media, and culture.

Article manuscripts may approach this linkage through various approaches, including but not limited to: queer, narrative, temporal, pedagogical, critical youth studies, and affective methodologies. This issue seeks to both nuance and complicate how queer children’s and young adult texts present different stakes in terms of their alignment with/or against futurity. Furthermore, we expect all articles to examine how children’s and young adult literature either sustain or complicate approaches to queer futurities and temporalities prominent in the field of queer theory/studies (i.e. Muñoz, Ahmed, Edelman, Freeman, Halberstam, etc.). Submissions that center on intersectional approaches towards queerness, temporality, and futurity in youth literature are particularly welcome.

Submit complete essays at https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/ by December 1, 2018. Essays must be between 4,000-6,000 words, including footnotes and Works Cited. All citations must be documented according to MLA 8. Questions should be addressed to Angel Daniel Matos (amatos@sdsu.edu) and Jon Michael Wargo (wargoj@bc.edu).

CFP- Special Issue of Research on Diversity in Youth Literature: Queer Futurities in Youth Literature