CFP: "Threatening Bodies: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race" (August 1, 2006)

Call for Papers: Special theme issue of 'Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'

'Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture' is an open access, electronic,
peer-reviewed journal devoted to publishing cultural studies work from emerging and established scholars worldwide.

We now invite submissions for our special-theme issue tentatively titled, "Threatening Bodies: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race"

Different types of bodies threaten the status quo, through their physical forms, bodily practices, or embodied identities. Such bodies, when read as text, are seen as dangerous to the institution of heterosexuality, gender stability, racialized identities, the nation, and the reproduction of future citizenry.

Often, for safety purposes, these bodies must move through spaces undetected. This collection seeks to examine how various bodies both threaten the nation and are simultaneously threatened by the nation. We invite papers that theorize the body through varied frameworks: as readable texts, as lived bodies, as systems, as cultural constructions, etc. Ultimately, we want to investigate how bodies threaten, trespass, spy, pass, "terrorize" and/or subvert the nation and dominant ideas of citizenship.

Possible topics may include:

transsexed and transgendered bodies

passing while pregnant bodies

sex working bodies

bodies that have aborted fetuses

racialized bodies

closeted bodies

spy/stealth operative bodies

mental health survivors' bodies

imperceptibly physically impaired bodies

self-cutting bodies

undocumented and illegal bodies

modified and manipulated bodies

**We are also accepting book reviews and review essays on fiction and
non-fiction texts that suit the theme of the special issue.**

Completed papers must be submitted by August 1, 2006 to threateningbodies@yahoo.com. Inquiries can be made to the same address.

Final journal to go online in January 2007.

Submission guidelines can bb found here

Co-editors:
Jennifer Musial and Emily van der Meulen
School of Women's Studies, York University
4700 Keele St, Toronto ON, Canada, M3J 1P3