Recent research has revealed the degree to which early modern experiences and conceptions of sex and gender were remarkably unstable and fluid, despite religious and secular restrictions that would indicate otherwise. For our Fall 2024 Forum, we are interested in scholarship that uses queer and trans approaches to reexamine the meanings and experiences of sex and gender between 1400 and 1800. We invite authors to engage a broad understanding of queerness, including genderqueer, genderfluid, gender non-conforming, transgender, and non-binary identities, and to interrogate the disruptive nature of the experiences of early modern individuals as a way to provide a deep historical context for the contemporary queer and trans experience.

For this forum we invite papers of 3,500 words including footnotes. The papers will be due 15 November 2023 and will be sent for peer review. Essays should follow the EMW Style Guide https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/pb-assets/docs/journals/emw-style-guide-1620063847753.pdf

The editors encourage submissions that appeal to readers across disciplinary boundaries. Articles may cover literature, history, art history, history of science, music, politics, religion, theatre, cultural studies, and any region of the early modern world. EMW does not publish articles that focus solely on representations of women by canonical male authors. Thus, despite the importance of such scholarship, we also will not accept queer or trans approaches to the works of canonical male authors. If you have any questions about whether your proposed forum paper fits the remit of the journal, please contact us at emw@press.uchicago.edu.

Please submit papers at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/emw/about. See Submissions and Instructions for Authors. For article type, select Forum. For additional queries, please contact the editors at emw@press.uchicago.edu.