Book Proposal
Date: 25th March 2013
Working Title: Sexuality, citizenship and multiple belongings: transnational , national and
intersectional perspectives
Proposed series: Advances in Critical Diversities
Subject Categories: Sociology, Social Policy, Sexuality, Gender, Citizenship, Nationalism,
Intersectionality
Proposed reviewers:

Professor Andrew Yip, University of Nottingham (Andrew.yip@nottingham.ac.uk)

Dr Jin Haritaworn, York University, Canada (haritawo@yorku.ca)

Dr Christian Klesse, Manchester Metropolitan University (c.klesse@mmu.ac.uk )
Editors: Dr Francesca Stella, Professor Yvette Taylor, Dr Tracey Reynolds and Dr Antoine Rogers
Dr Francesca Stella (contact editor): LKAS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Social and
Political Sciences, University of Glasgow
Email: francesca.stella@glasgow.ac.uk
Professor Yvette Taylor: Head of the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South
Bank University
Email: taylory@lsbu.ac.uk
Dr Tracey Reynolds: Reader, Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank
University
Email: reynolta@lsbu.ac.uk
Dr Antoine Rogers: Principal Lecturer, Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London
South Bank University
Email: rogersa2@lsbu.ac.uk
Editors’ bios:
Francesca Stella is LKAS Research Fellow at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University
of Glasgow. She has held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at London South Bank University
(2012). She has published widely on sexuality, gender and citizenship in Russia, and has coedited a special section of the journal Europe-Asia Studies (2012, vol 64, issue 10). Her most
recent publications include ‘The politics of in/visibility: carving out queer space in Ul’yanovsk’,
Europe-Asia Studies 64(10), 2012; ‘Moscow, the global city? Queer space, Pride and shame in the
Russian capital’, Slavic Review 72(3) (forthcoming, Fall 2013), and ‘Lesbian lives and real existing
1
socialism in late Soviet Russia’ in Taylor, Y. and Addison, M. (eds) Queer Presences and Absences
(Basingstoke, 2013, forthcoming).
Yvette Taylor is Professor in Social and Policy Studies and Head of the Weeks Centre for Social
and Policy Research, London South Bank University. She has held a Fulbright Scholarship at
Rutgers University (2010-11). Books include Fitting Into Place? Class and Gender Geographies
and Temporalities (Ashgate 2012); Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Securing Social and Educational
Capitals (Palgrave Macmillan 2009) and Working-Class Lesbian Life: Classed Outsiders (Palgrave
Macmillan 2007). Edited collections include Educational Diversity (Palgrave Macmillan
2012); Sexualities: Reflections and Futures (2012); Theorizing Intersectionality and
Sexuality (Palgrave
Macmillan
2010)
and Classed
Intersections:
Spaces,
Selves,
Knowledges (Ashgate 2010). She has articles in a range of journals including British Journal of the
Sociology of Education, European Societies, Sociological Research Online, Sexualities, and
Feminist Theory. Yvette is currently working on an ESRC standard grant ‘Making Space for Queer
Identifying Religious Youth’ and recently completed an ESRC (2007-09) funded project ‘From the
Coal Face to the Car Park? Intersections of Class and Gender in the North East of England’. She
regularly blogs on the British Sociological Association’s (BSA) Sociology and the Cuts and the
Gender and Education Association (GEA) websites and is director of the MA Gender and
Sexuality at the Weeks Centre. Follow Yvette @YvetteTaylor0
Tracey Reynolds is a Reader in the Families and Social Capital ESRC Research Group, which is
situated within the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research at London South Bank University.
Tracey’s research interests focus on transnational families and kinship networks; constructions
of motherhood, parenting & childrearing. She has conducted extensive empirical research in the
UK across a range of social issues including black and minority families living in disadvantaged
communities. Previous publications include ‘Exploring the absent/present dilemma: Black fathers,
family relationships and social capital in Britain’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, (2009). She is also the author of Caribbean Mothers: Identity and Experience in
the UK (published by Tufnell Press, 2005); Transnational Families: Ethnicities, Identities and Social
Capital, with Harry Goulbourne, John Solomos and Elisabetta Zontini, (published by Routledge,
2010) and Guest Editor of Special Issue ‘Young People, Ethnicity and Social Capital’, Ethnic and
Racial Studies (May 2010).
Antoine Rogers is a Principal Lecturer in Sociology at London South Bank University. Antoine’s
main areas of academic research include sexuality, the voluntary sector and qualitative research
methods. His research and teaching has been greatly informed by his professional experiences as
a qualified social worker and as a political activist. Antoine is a Chicago native and his work
critically reflects on national as well as local identity as well as the role of personal experiences
as a source of knowledge and understanding. In collaboration with the London based
organization, the rukus! Federation, he produced the film ‘In This Our Lives – The Reunion.’ The
documentary film, directed by Topher Campbell, explores the complex intersection of race,
sexuality and social policy within a British context. The film premiered at London South Bank
University in October 2008 and featured in the 2009 London Lesbian and Gay Film
Festival. Antoine’s most recent publication, ‘In this our Lives’: Invisibility and Black British Gay
Identity’, is part of the edited collection from Rivers and Ward (2012) Out of the Ordinary:
Representations of LGBT Lives. Antoine also co-wrote ‘Crossing Deep Waters: Transatlantic
2
Reflections Black Gay Men and Journeys influenced by ‘In The Life’ for the forthcoming edited
collection from Stephens and Fullwood Black Genius: Joseph Beam and ‘In the Life’ (forthcoming).
Antoine is currently working on his first book, The Evidence of My Existence, which explores the
intersection of race, sexuality and nationality.
3
1.
Rationale, Synopsis and Aims
It has been argued that changes in sexual and intimate lives across the globe have led to the
progressive democratisation of sexual relations and the transnational mainstreaming of notions
of sexual justice (Giddens 1992; Weeks 2007). These perspectives, however, have been
challenged by research highlighting persistent disparities in gender and sexuality equality across
nation-states (Stychin 2003; Roseneil, Halsaa and Sumer 2012), conservative backlashes against
the globalisation of sexual and reproductive rights (Binnie 2004; Waites and Kollman 2009); and
enduring inequalities and tensions within the diverse communities ostensibly represented by
LGBT and feminist politics (Taylor, Hines and Casey 2010).
This collection brings together a diverse range of critical interventions and new research within
sexuality studies, highlighting new ways of thinking about the connections between sexual
politics, intimate citizenship, and multiple identifications and belongings. By examining different
socio-political contexts and spatial dimensions (national, transnational, local), we aim to attend
to broader geopolitical and socio-legal structures within which competing claims to citizenship
and belonging are played out. An intersectional approach (Taylor et al. 2010; Lutz et al., 2011) is
utilised to explore the interplay between sexuality and nationhood, ‘race’, ethnicity, religious
identity and social class, and to foreground individual and collective (dis)investments and
(dis)identifications.
The mainstreaming of gender and sexuality equality policies across the ‘western’ world and
beyond has been hailed as a sign of the (partial) normalisation and purposeful inclusion of
queers into the citizenry and the symbolism of ‘nation’ (Richardson 2004; Weeks 2007).
Nonetheless, this process has arguably reinforced global geopolitical hierarchies, whereby a
country’s record on sexual and gender equality becomes conflated with its level of successful
modernisation and civilisation, a phenomenon which Puar (2007) calls ‘homonationalism’.
Within Europe, the mainstreaming of legislation and policies on sexual and gender equality has
been uneven (Trappolin et al. 2012), despite the discursive association between European values
and ‘sexual democracy’ (Fassin 2010). Indeed, there is evidence that transnational ideals of
sexual democracy clash with nationalist projects where notions of gendered citizenship are tied
to the biological and racialised reproduction of the nation (Yuval-Davis 1992; Erel 2009, 2011).
Globalisation and the process of European integration have created new opportunities to claim
rights and move across national borders to more ‘sexually progressive’ countries; however, the
connections between sexuality, migration and transnational citizenship remain underexplored
(Mai et al. 2009; Erel 2009). Section 1 of this volume explores claims to sexual citizenship by
queers and migrants, and how these claims are articulated within and across national borders.
Contributors to this section explore debates over same-sex partnership rights and
homonormative kinship (Mizielinska and Stasinska); tensions between homonormative national
citizenship and transnational ideals of sexual democracy (Stella); humanitarian governance and
the experiences of migrant sex workers and queer asylum seekers (Mai); and the role played by
sexuality in Irish queers’ decision to migrate to the UK (Ryan-Flood).
4
‘Sexual democracy’ has often been linked to secularisation and the declining influence of
religious institutions in Western societies (Hunt and Yip, 2012; Nynäs and Yip 2012). Indeed, both
feminism and gay liberation have mostly regarded religion as ‘an intrinsically constraining and
restrictive force, policing gendered and sexual subjectivities and practices’ (Nynäs and Yip 2012:
9). Whilst the tension between sexual liberalism and religious norms continues to be a site of
contestation, increasingly heated public debates on the role of religion in Western democracies
have generally focussed on the danger posed by religious ‘Others’, framing the issues e.g. in
terms of a clash between ‘Western’ and ‘Muslim’ civilisations (Haritaworn 2012; El-Tayeb 2012).
However, new research agendas focus on ‘vernacular religion’ (Lassander 2012) and explore the
intersection between sexuality and religion through an examination of everyday practices and
identifications, rather than by focusing on religious institutions and dogmas. This research
challenges the assumption that religious beliefs are incompatible with non-reproductive and
non-heteronormative sexual practices and identities (Nynäs and Yip 2012; Yip and Page 2013;
Taylor and Snowdon, forthcoming). Section 2 explores the tensions between secularism, religion
and sexuality by presenting empirical research focussed on how young people from different
faith groups forge their subjectivities while negotiating sexual practices and religious norms.
Contributions to this section examine young LGBT people’s complex interactions with
Christianity (Taylor and Snowdon); conflicted identifications among British queer Hindus
(Gunaseelan); and the pursuit of new ways of being sexual among religious young people (Page).
Recent work highlights how in many western nations ‘sexual nationalism’ is deployed to racialise
the ethnic and religious ‘Other’ (Puar 2007; Fassin 2010; Hariwatorn 2012). The category of ‘race’
has been central to intersectional thinking among feminist and queer scholars in the US;
however, there has been some reluctance to explicitly engage with the notion of ‘race’ within a
European context (Kuntsman and Miyake 2008; Lewis 2009; Lutz 2011; Hariwatorn 2012),
despite the importance of political mobilisation around Black identities and critiques of the
overall ‘whiteness’ of queer studies (Reynolds 2013; Ferguson 2004; Rogers 2012). Section 3
explores the intersections of ‘race’, sexuality and gender in the representations and embodied
experiences of different groups of Black, minority ethnic and migrant women in the UK. The
empirical chapters presented in this section explore how both heterosexual and queer identities,
representations and spaces are implicitly coded white, and this works to heighten the visibility of
racialised bodies as the ‘Other’. Contributions to this section explore dominant sexualised
constructions of Black womanhood, and how Black women themselves interpret and subvert
these constructs (Reynolds); gendered and racialised representations of girls at risk of social
exclusion (Robinson); and racialised assumptions about ‘authentic’ lesbian bodies and identities
(Held).
Recent changes in sexuality legislation and policy in many western countries have generated
optimistic assessments about ‘the world we have won’ (Weeks 2007), and about the
transferability of western models of sexual citizenship politics to other parts of the globe
(Roseneil et al. 2012; Tremblay et al. 2011). However, critics have pointed to the unwitting
complicity of transnational feminist and LGBT activism in the neo-colonial instrumentalisation of
women’s and gay rights, which reinforces notions of a civilised ‘west’ and a barbaric, racialised
‘Other’ (Baccheta et al. 2002; Waites and Kollman 2009). Domestically, single-issue politics
premised on universalistic notions of womanhood and gay identity have been critiqued for
erasing from the political agenda other inequalities around ‘race’, ethnicity, class and religious
5
affiliation (Fraser 1999; Ward 2008). The fourth and final section of the collection focuses on
sexual politics and activism, foregrounding sites of contestation and the potential to generate
new solidarities able to bridge ongoing social divisions. Contributions to this section consider the
perpetuation of power hierarchies within the LGBT voluntary sector in the UK (Rogers); antiracist
and homophobic alliances among grassroots activists in Palermo, Italy (Alga); the mobilisation of
discourses of sexual democracy in the conditional channelling of western aid to the global South
(Atluri); and the postcolonial power relations involved in transnational solidarity campaigns to
support LGBT rights in British Commonwealth countries (Waites).
The collection emerges from an international conference organised by the editors at the Weeks
Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank University in October 2012. The
multidisciplinary event showcased cutting edge research and new critical perspectives by worldleading and early career scholars working in the field of sexualities and gender studies.
Compared to other potential competitors in the field (see pp. 16-17), the collection breaks new
ground by explicitly attending to different spatial dimensions (national, transnational, local), and
by bringing into conversation macro-level and micro-level perspectives. These perspectives are
linked together through key theoretical and analytical concepts, notably sexual nationalism,
citizenship, intersectionality and identity.
The collection will be of interest to academic researchers and teachers in the field of gender and
sexuality studies, and will be a valuable teaching resource for undergraduate and postgraduate
courses in sociology, human geography, social policy, politics, and cultural studies. The collection
will appeal to an international market (UK, Europe and North America) owing to its transnational
perspective and international scope, covering the UK, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Russia, the US and
the British Commonwealth.
6
2. The Organisation of the Book
Table of Contents
Introduction – Francesca Stella, Yvette Taylor, Tracey Reynolds and Antoine Rogers
Section 1: Sexual nationalisms and the boundaries of sexual citizenship
1.
Stories That Can Break the Silence? Polish Heteronormative Citizenship and its Discontents - Joanna
Mizielińska and Agata Stasińska
2.
Russian nationalism, intimate citizenship and transnational sexual politics - Francesca
Stella
3.
Performing Biographical Borders: Problematising Sexual Humanitarianism through
Experimental Filmmaking - Nick Mai
4.
Sexuality, citizenship and migration: the Irish diaspora in London - Roísín Ryan-Flood
Section 2: Sexuality, religion and belonging
1.
Making space for queer-identifying religious young people: querying who and what is
being remade – Yvette Taylor and Ria Snowdon
2.
Fragmented identities: the homosexual 'Other' in British Hindu communities - Poonkulaly
Gunaseelan
3.
Counter-normative Identities: Religious Young People Subverting Sexual Norms - SarahJane Page
Section 3: Embodied sexual and racialised subjects
1.
Queering Black Womanhood? Pushing together and pulling apart (a)sexualised constructs
of Black Female Identities – Tracey Reynolds
2.
Troubling Perceptions of Belonging: gendered and racialised constructions of girls at risk
of school exclusion - Yvonne Robinson
3.
Sexuality, ‘Race’ and Space, or What Does a Genuine Lesbian Look Like? - Nina Held
7
Section 4: Sexual politics and activism: local, national and transnational dimensions
1.
BME LGBT Voluntary Sector Organizations: Hierarchies and Power at the intersection of
racial and sexual Identity - Antoine Rogers
2.
Alga
‘Being periphery’: Antiracist and antihomophobic struggles in a Mediterranean city – Livia
3.
Time after time: sexual politics in a time of war and austerity - Tara Atluri
4.
The New Transnational Politics of Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
in the British Commonwealth: Learning from the South – Matthew Waites
8
3
Chapter outlines
Introduction – Francesca Stella, Yvette Taylor, Tracey Reyonolds and Antoine Rogers
Section 1: Sexual nationalisms and the boundaries of sexual citizenship
1.
Stories That Can Break the Silence? Polish Heteronormative Citizenship and its Discontents
Joanna Mizielińska and Agata Stasińska
The current debate on same sex partnership in Poland cannot be understood without the preceding
discussion that took place in Poland, namely the work on the Polish constitution where a very narrow
notion of sexual citizenship was introduced (1997), and the first draft legislation on same-sex partnerships
(2003). The chapter shows how the notion of heteronormative citizenship is being (re)produced in the
public sphere and how slowly heteronormativity as an ideal is being undermined by the emergence of new
narratives of family relations and intimate citizenship. We will do so firstly through a critical analysis of the
Polish Constitution, public opinion polls and the national census; secondly, we will present the results of
discourse analysis on ‘families of choice’ (Weston, 1991; Weeks el al., 2001) in Poland from crucial public
debates of the last decade. By doing this we would like to identify the main public strategies of silencing
and excluding, its dynamics, main actors, possible changes and shifts in time. We also would like to show
some undesired alliances among those who are openly against and in favour of same sex partnership. We
will discuss the dangers and ineffectiveness of some strategies used by LGBT community and the necessity
to reflect upon them.
2.
Russian nationalism, intimate citizenship and transnational sexual politics
Francesca Stella
The chapter examines the shifting boundaries of intimate citizenship in the Russian Federation,
where sexual and reproductive rights have become politicised both from above and from below
since the early 2000s. The first part of the paper charts debates on proposed restrictions on
abortion, the proposed introduction of legislation against the ‘propaganda of homosexuality’ ,
and the introduction of financial incentives for families with two or more children, known as
‘maternal capital’ [materinskii capital]. These measures have typically been justified in the name
of the national interest, amidst growing concerns about Russia’s demographic crisis and
declining birth rate. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of biopower (1978) and on Yuval-Davis’ work
on gender and nation (1997), the chapter explores the relationship between nation, nationalism
and sexuality in the Russian context. The chapter then considers the influence of international
pressures on the Russian context through a case study on international solidarity campaign
against the introduction of a bill against the ‘propaganda of homosexuality’. The discussion
illustrates the complex power relations and contradictory effects involved in transnational sexual
politics, particularly as ‘sexual democracy’ (Fassin 2010) is invoked as a European, Western value,
acquiring a normative, ethnocentric connotation.
9
3.
Performing Biographical Borders: Problematizing Sexual Humanitarianism through
Experimental Filmmaking
Nick Mai
The contemporary increase and diversification of migration flows on a global scale coincides with
the onset of humanitarian forms of governance. These contain and manage ‘undesirable’
migrants that are strategically constructed as vulnerable. Because of the increasingly restrictive
policies framing global migrations, the granting of asylum and the social protection of vulnerable
migrant groups have become new biographical borders between the West and the Rest of the
world. Fundamental rights are allocated on the basis of the performance of ‘true' victimhood
repertoires, reproducing the suffering body of the migrant as a strategic tool to elicit compassion
and solidarity. Within the humanitarian governance of migration, gender and sexuality have
become strategic narrative repertoires through which hierarchies of belonging and barriers to
mobility are reinforced. The focus on the sexual dimension to construct and control specific
groups of migrants as vulnerable through humanitarian interventions can be defined as ‘sexual
humanitarianism'. The Emborders (Embodying Biographical Borders) filmmaking/research
project problematizes the effectiveness and scope of sexual humanitarianism by comparing the
experiences of two groups of migrants who are addressed as potential ‘target victims': migrants
working in the sex industry and sexual minority migrants. Both groups can be targeted by sexual
humanitarianism as potential victims of sex trafficking and sexual minority refugees respectively.
Emborders assembles the narratives of victimhood and emancipation they perform in the
context of original research interviews. The filmmaking/research project draws on real stories
and real people, which will be performed by actors to protect the identities of the original
interviewees and reproduce the performance of their self-representations through interviews.
Emborders is a scientific reconstruction of the life histories of migrants targeted by sexual
humanitarianism. It is also an artistic reflection on the inherently fictional nature of any
narration of the self. By using actors to reproduce real people and real life histories, the film
project ultimately challenges what constitutes a credible and acceptable reality in scientific,
filmic and humanitarian terms.
4.
Sexuality, Citizenship and Migration: The Irish Diaspora in London
Róisín Ryan-Flood
This chapter will explore the experiences of Irish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT)
people living in London. Various writers have noted the appeal of global cities to LGBT people, as
metropolitan centres are associated with tolerance of sexual diversity and established queer
communities. There is a long history of Irish migration to the UK, particularly London. This has
coincided historically with many Irish LGBT people feeling compelled to emigrate in search of a
more tolerant and supportive social climate. The study explores Irish LGBT migrants' reasons for
moving to London and experiences there. Research questions address notions of home, identity,
belonging and family relationships. The ways in which identities become circulated in global
contexts and are rearticulated, as well as the significance of migration in the formation of Irish
queer subjectivities, are examined. By exploring the relationship between sexuality, ethnicity and
migration, the study attempts to uncover the ways in which contemporary sexual citizenship,
migration and queer imaginaries of the metropolis are mutually implicated in complex ways. This
paper considers some of the implications of the research findings for wider theories of
transnational citizenship and belonging.
10
Section 2: Sexuality, religion and belonging
5.
Making Space for Queer-identifying Religious Young People: Querying who and what is
being Remade
Yvette Taylor and Ria Snowdon
Making space for queer-identifying religious youth’ (2011-2013) is an Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) funded project, which seeks to shed light on youth cultures, queer
community and religious groups. A primary aim is to explore more systematically young people’s
understanding of religion and how religious identity interacts with other types of identity,
specifically those associated with sexuality. Whilst non-heterosexuality is often associated with
secularism, this study works against this dominant discourse by exploring the experiences of
young LGBT people’s connections with Christianity. Rather than assume that sexuality and
religion – and in our case Christianity – are separate and divergent paths (Wilcox, 2000), we
explore how they might mutually and complexly construct one another. Initially intended as a
case study of the U.K. Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), as founded in, for and by ‘LGBT’
Christians, the research has extended beyond the MCC to capture respondents’ varied religious
practices, dis-identifications and ‘church hopping’ movements. Here, we explore the
methodological difficulties in ‘making space’ for research-researcher-research as a ‘queer’ disorientation involving elements of ‘intruding’, ‘mapping’ and ‘hopping’. We argue that such
empirical dis-orientations (where, for example, space has already been ‘made’ and is being remade – including online (virtual methods), on the page (diary exercises and maps), and in the
spoken work(interviews)), queer-y and confound researchers attempts at ‘making space’ as
research access-analysis-write-up. Methodological matters highlight the lived-in intersection of
embodied positions and identifications that facilitate and impede access and analysis: here we
present some of these as intersecting entanglements.
6.
Fragmented identities: the homosexual 'Other' in British Hindu communities
Poonkulaly Gunaseelan
The migration of South Asians to Britain in the twentieth-century created the inevitable
assimilation into Western culture. Although race, gender and class are standard descriptors for
identity, it is overlooked that, for many, religion is a focal part of identity. Within the UK, South
Asians are segregated by their religious affiliation; therefore highlighting that religion plays an
integral part of their identity. This paper will focus on British Hindu communities and their
response to homosexuality. References to homosexuality within the British Hindu community
are rare and infrequent; instead, same-sex desire is “Othered” and considered a taboo. For many
Hindu communities, homosexuality, and its acceptance, is perceived as an alien and degenerate
condition, stemming from excessive integration with the “white” community. The aim of this
paper is twofold; I will deconstruct the common belief within Hindu communities that
homosexuality is a European construction, and also what it means to be a homosexual Hindu
living in the UK. I suggest that although homosexual Hindus are welcomed into the LGBTIQ
11
network, they are never able to truly integrate with their community, and live among people
who are culturally similar to them, thus leading to a conflicted identity as a homosexual Hindu.
7.
Counter-normative Identities: Religious Young People Subverting Sexual Norms
Sarah-Jane Page
Contemporary life is often associated with greater sexual freedom, with restraint and
traditionalism partitioned to the past. The new rights accorded to sexual minorities and women
have cemented such a perception. But while some theorists (e.g. Weeks 2007) remain optimistic
about the step-changes that have occurred regarding sexuality, others proceed more cautiously,
instead focusing on the regulatory mechanisms that still remain in place (Jackson and Scott 2010).
Religious young people are something of an oxymoron in this environment; seemingly unable to
participate in these new liberatory sexualities because religion is often inscribed with
traditionalism and religious unfreedom (Yip and Page 2013).
This chapter will focus on the intersecting dynamics of religion and sexuality, considering how
religious young people (aged between 18 and 25) do situate themselves in this climate,
particularly focusing on those who have cultivated identities that appear out of synch with
dominant youth culture. The chapter will therefore chart the experiences of religious people
who promote celibacy, as well as those who endorse ethical non-monogamous relationship
types. Finally, attention will be given to those attempting to establish new links between religion
and sexuality, through the sacralisation of sexual practice. Instead of viewing sexuality and
religion in oxymoronic terms, these individuals are pursuing new ways of being sexual within a
religious context. All of these identities subvert dominant cultural impressions of youth sexuality,
and can in turn help illuminate the regulatory framework that remains in place around sex,
sexuality and relationship type in youth spaces more generally.
Section 3: Embodied sexualities: queering ‘race’ and gender
8.
Queering Black Womanhood? Pushing together and pulling apart (a)sexualised constructs
of Black Female Identities
Tracey Reynolds
In the New Europe the Black Mammy represents one of the key images of black women that are
continually reproduced within media, popular cultural policy and debates. Whilst the mammy
figure is represented as asexual, god-fearing; loyal, domestic worker and carer, there are further
(a)sexualised, racialised and gendered images of black womanhood that actively attempt to
position us as the ‘Matriarch’; ‘Superwoman’; ‘Babymother’; ‘Dancehall Queen’ or ‘Angry Black
Woman’. Within this discourse of nationalism, citizenship and social integration, such images
are held up as evidence of black women’s own moral and cultural shortcomings, and they are
used to blame black women for their structurally subordinate location in society. This shifts
attention away from discriminatory racist and sexist practices and issues of social exclusion and
marginalization that create interlocking and intersecting systems of oppression for black women
in the UK and across many European societies. Drawing on qualitative interviews with a diverse
group of black women, including those at different stages of the life-course, and sharing
different migration history, socio-economic, ethnic background, the analysis critically
interrogates these constructs of black womanhood and considers how black women themselves
12
are resisting and subverting these dominant images through their own subjective interpretations,
which is grounded in their everyday lived experiences. Also examined is the way in which images
of black womanhood inform and challenge narratives of self, family and community. In this
paper sexuality provides an analytic lens for understanding black women's experiences of
belonging and (social and geographical) mobility, as well as for highlighting the multiple levels of
oppression and resistance found in these women's lives within Europe.
9.
Troubling Perceptions of Belonging: gendered and racialised constructions of girls at risk
of school exclusion
Yvonne Robinson
This paper examines constructions of gendered and racialised identity in the classroom in
understanding the experiences of Black girls at risk of school exclusion. I draw on ethnographic,
participatory research with pupils attending Behaviour Support Units in three inner city UK
schools, to argue that their perceptions of educational inclusion and exclusion incorporate both
recognition of and rejection to preconceived, and usually unexamined, gendered and racialised
assumptions about them. From stories of being seen as natural aggressors, troublemakers,
boisterous and ‘loud’ it is clear that highly normative discourses of (in)appropriate ‘feminine’
behaviours structured classroom interactions. I argue that these constructions ultimately
pervaded the girls’ experiences of school and infused their judgements about belonging and not
belonging. I also demonstrate how the hetero-normativity of behaviour support units worked
for and against these pupils, as spaces which both heightened their visibility and in which
intersections of race and sexuality collide.
10.
Sexuality, ‘Race’ and Space, or What Does a Genuine Lesbian Look Like?
Nina Held
This chapter explores the relationship between sexuality, race and space by drawing on research
conducted in two rather different spaces in Manchester (UK): the Gay Village and the Lesbian
Immigration Support Group (LISG). The chapter demonstrates that in both, night-time leisure
spaces for women and spaces of asylum, belonging is determined by whether you are perceived
to be a ‘genuine’ lesbian. Especially issues of sexuality and asylum bring to the fore the theme of
this book in particular ways. To win recognition as a refugee most members of LISG have to fight
for recognition as a lesbian first. Citizenship ultimately becomes a question of sexuality. The
Supreme Court decision in 2010 (HJ and HT v. SSHD) shifted the ways in which sexuality is
understood in the asylum process, in a Foucauldian sense, from sexual practices to sexual
identity. However, ‘proving’ your sexual identity now lies at the heart of the matter.
Unfortunately, this decision is also a telling example of how the courts draw on a stereotypical
Western notion of sexuality that is inherently gendered and racialised. As my ethnographic study
conducted in the Gay Village demonstrates, the category sexuality itself is racialised so that the
identity ‘lesbian’ is coded as white. This chapter therefore explores the question: what does it
mean to be a genuine lesbian?
Section 4: Sexual politics and activism: local, national and transnational dimensions
11.
BME LGBT Voluntary Sector Organizations: Hierarchies and Power at the intersection of
racial and sexual Identity
13
Antoine Rogers
In the UK voluntary sector organizations have been identified as a key component to a civil
society, a position championed by all political parties. The particular nature and context of work
related to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered voluntary sector organizations has been
better understood in recent years with a number of publications seeking to map the sector in
terms of services provided and to measure the sector's income and from where funds derive.
The paper aims to add to this literature by focusing on LGBT community of identity organizations
and looks at the intersection of identity as it related to race sexuality and gender within these
organizations. The paper discusses the development of the broader mainstream LGBT voluntary
sector and how hierarches seen in non LGBT organizations replicated at larger mainstream
organizations are in turn replicated at the LGBT voluntary sector level. This replication and use of
hierarchy enables representatives from larger LGBT organizations (mainly white gay males) to
position themselves as the experts of the sector determining the areas of particular concern
which most often relate to sexual health and violence and homophobia prevention. This use of
hierarchy enables white gay men to position themselves as the moral guardians of the LGBT
voluntary sector. Using a range of methods including archival analysis, secondary statistical
analysis and interviews, the paper explores the activity of LGBT community of identity
organizations. It shows how, despite obstacles related to hieratical power structure in the LGBT
voluntary sector and funding limitations, LGBT community of identity voluntary sector
organizations generate a tremendous level of outputs in areas of art, heritage, community
engagement alongside more traditional areas of provision often ascribed to the LGBT voluntary
sector including sexual health and violence homophobia prevention.
12.
‘Being periphery’: Antiracist and antihomophobic struggles in a Mediterranean city
Livia Alga
Scholars and activists of antiracist and antihomophobic movements have recently been analysing
the phenomena of ‘gay imperialism’ and ‘sexual democratisation’ in European countries. Italy
represents an exception among these countries due to its record on sexual and human rights. On
the one hand, in fact, Italian law does not allow marriage, civil partnerships, and child adoption
for LGBT citizens. On the other, its institutions often violate the rights of migrants and impose on
them punitive conditions to acquire citizenship. In Italy, therefore, racial and sexual minorities
share a lack of rights and a clandestine condition. This is particularly true in Sicily, one of
Europe’s ‘peripheries’. This chapter looks at the practices of antihomophobic and antiracist
movements in Palermo, Sicily’s largest city. It analyses processes of coalition building among
parts of these movements, particularly the creation of a feminist meeting space called ‘La
migration’. Palermo has long been considered a stereotypically backward place for civil and
sexual rights. What solidarities, but also tensions, traverse the sexual and racial question in such
context? How does the coming together of lesbian-queer native and migrant subjects transform
their sense of belonging in a peripheral setting? In the Mediterranean context, the dichotomy
between a ‘European’ sexual emancipation and the ‘backwardness’ of other cultures loses
meaning. What shared strategies of resistance do activists thus put in place? The chapter
explores the intersection and disjuncture of activists’ senses of belonging and estrangement visà-vis local and ethnic communities, native and migrant cultures, LGBT and antiracist associations.
14
13.
Time after time: sexual politics in a time of war and austerity
Tara Atluri
In 2011 David Cameron suggested that British aid to countries in the global south should be
dependent on their institution of LGBTI rights. Subsequently, several homophobic comments
were made by African leaders. A letter drafted by several African activists suggested that
Cameron’s comments smack of neocolonialism. Rahul Rao (2011), discussing the critiques that
have been levelled against Cameron, highlights “the insidious ways in which such initiatives
could drive a wedge between queers and a broader civil society in recipient countries, besides
reinforcing perceptions of the westernness of homosexuality as well as the imperial dynamics
already prevailing between donor and recipient countries”.
Understandings of political subjectivity rooted in orientalist thought fail to apprehend divergent
ways in which sexual politics are articulated outside of grammars of the Western polis.
Furthermore, one should perhaps consider a larger political context that produces what Jasbir
Puar has termed “homonationalism,” a discourse through which sexual politics are scripted to
coincide with the fiscal aims of warring Western powers (Puar, 2009). My paper discusses “gay
conditionality,” its motivations, uses and effects. I trouble increased mobilizations of discourses
of “sexual freedom’ by neoliberal nation states within contexts of war and austerity.
14.
The New Transnational Politics of Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
in the British Commonwealth: Learning from the South
Matthew Waites
How should struggles for decriminalisation, human rights and equality in relation to sexual
orientation and gender identity be taken forward? The chapter discusses this issue in the
context of findings from the first comparative analysis of struggles in the Commonwealth,
focusing on 16 states. The British Empire’s legal legacy of criminalisation persists in 42 states,
and the chapter problematises contemporary relationships between activisms in Britain and in
those states, in the context of colonialism, imperialism and sexual nationalisms. The new
London-based transnational politics of decriminalisation is introduced, led by NGOs such as
Human Dignity Trust, Peter Tatchell Foundation and Kaleidoscope - often seeking influence
through the Commonwealth. The chapter argues that UK activists have much to learn from the
South. For example, activists from Uganda criticise moves to link LGBT human rights to British
development aid. Caribbean activists emphasise that regional international strategising existed
prior to London-based transnational legal interventions. The South Africa case suggests winning
a broad shift in hegemony was important; and the Voices Against 377 coalition in India suggests
much to learn about innovative formation of alliances among social movements. The chapter
presents a critical analysis of the new London-based transnational politics of decriminalisation in
this context.
15
5.
Target Audience
The book will appeal to a variety of audiences, and the expected readership includes:

Academic researchers in the fields of gender, sexuality and intimacy studies within the
disciplines of sociology, human geography, social policy, politics, and cultural studies.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students (both taught and research) in the social
sciences and humanities;

Teachers at the undergraduate and postgraduate level;

Policy-makers and practitioners within the voluntary and public sector working on
sexuality issues in the fields of equality, diversity and human rights, for whom it will be an
academic resource.
The book will appeal to a broad professional and undergraduate/postgraduate student
audiences within higher and further education institutions. The primary market for the proposed
book would be as a text on compulsory and optional UG/PG courses in sexualities and gender
studies within the subjects of sociology, human geography, social policy, politics and cultural
studies. A second market for the project are policy-makers, practitioners and activists working
intersectionally on sexuality issues in the fields of equality, diversity and human rights.
Despite a demise of undergraduate degrees in Gender/Women’s Studies within the UK, the area
remains buoyant, with gender and sexualities studies increasingly mainstreamed into core
modules within broader degree programmes in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Gender and
sexualities studies modules continued to be highly popular at undergraduate level, and at MA
level there are 28 institutions in the UK currently offering degrees in Gender and Women’s
Studies. Given the geographical scope of the collection, covering the UK, Ireland, Poland, Italy,
Russia, the US and the British Commonwealth, it is expected that he book will appeal to an
international readership, particularly within Europe and North America. MA programmes in
gender and sexualities studies are an expanding field within Europe, and are on offer at many
European HEIs1. The book has the potential to do very well on the North American market,
particularly in the US, where a large number of HEIs host vibrant and successful
women's/gender/feminist/queer studies programmes2.
6.
Competing Titles
1
http://www.findamasters.com/search/courses.aspx?SAID=77
2
See http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/programs.html
16
Compared to other potential competitors in the field, the collection breaks new ground by
explicitly attending to different spatial dimensions (national, transnational, local), and by
bringing into conversation macro-level and micro-level perspectives in debates on sexuality,
citizenship and multiple belongings. These perspectives are linked together through key
theoretical and analytical concepts, notably sexual nationalism, citizenship, intersectionality and
identity.
The most direct competitors to Sexuality, Citizenship and Recognition are:


Sexualities: Past Reflections, Future Directions (Hines and Taylor (eds), 2012).
Out of Place: Interrogating Silences in Queerness/Raciality (Kunstman and Miyake 2008)
The proposed collection seeks to complement these collections while offering a distinctive
thematic focus and approach.
Hines and Taylor (2012) is an introduction to topical debates within sexualities studies with an
international scope, which seeks the bridge the gap between theory, research methods and lived
experiences of sexuality. The proposed collection also charts topical and emerging debates
within sexualities studies; however, it does not address methodological issues, and has a specific
and distinctive substantive focus on the intersections between sexuality, national/transnational
citizenship, ‘race’ and religion.
Kuntsman and Miyake’s pioneering collection (2008), drawing on Puar (2007), specifically sought
to explore the ways in which ‘race’ was theorised and politicised within sexualities/queer studies.
Kuntsman and Miyake’s collection was published by a small independent publisher, and
contained fairly short chapters; this reflected the exploratory nature of the collection. The book
is currently out of print, despite the fact that there has been a renewed interest within
sexualities studies in the notion of sexual nationalism and sexual politics as instrumental to the
(re)production of a racialised ‘Other’ (Waites and Kollman 2009; Haritaworn 2012; Nynas and Yip
2012). The longer chapters in Sexuality, Citizenship and Recognition provide a more in-depth
exploration of these important debates, and draw on new empirical research.
6
Overall Structure of the Book
The book will be approximately 105,000 words in length, consisting of 14 chapters and an
introduction. The chapters are divided into sections relating to: sexual nationalisms and the
boundaries of sexual citizenship; sexuality, religion and belonging; embodied sexual and
racialised subjects; and the national and transnational dimensions of sexual politics and activism.
Each chapter will be approximately 7,000 words in length. The editors will introduce the
collection by providing a background to sexuality studies and an exploration of emerging debates
on the intersections between sexual nationalisms, citizenship, ‘race’/ethnicity and religion.
7
Indication of length
17
14 chapters at 7000 words each = 98,000including consolidated bibliography
Introduction = 5000
Total = 103,000
8
Provisional timeline
We propose to invite authors to submit full chapters by the end of November 2013.
Feedback will be returned to authors within 3 months, and authors will be invited to send a
revised chapter back to the editors by the end of July 2014. Submission to Routledge would take
place by the end of December 2014.
9
Estimate of number of photographs
None anticipated.
18
10
Key references
Bacchetta, P., Campt, T., Grewal, I., Kaplan, C., Moallem, M. and Terry, J. (2002) ‘Transnational
feminist practices against war’, Meridians 2(2): 302–308.
Binnie, J. (2004) The globalization of sexuality. London: Sage.
Erel, U. (2009) Migrant women transforming citizenship. Farnham: Ashgate.
Erel, U. (2011) ‘Complex belongings: racialization and migration in a small English city’, Ethnic
and Racial Studies 34(12), pp. 2048-68.
Fassin, E. (2010) ‘National identities and transnational intimacies: sexual democracy and the
politics of immigration in Europe’, Public Culture 22(3), pp. 507-529.
Ferguson, R. (2004) Aberrations in black: Toward a queer of color critique. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press.
Foucalt, M. (1978) The history of sexuality vol 1: The will to knowledge. London: Penguin.
Fraser, M. (1999) ‘Classing Queer. Politics in Competition’, in Bell, V.(ed) Performativity &
Belonging. London: Sage, pp. 107-132.
Giddens, A. (1992) The transformation of intimacy: sexuality, love and eroticism in modern
societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Haritaworn, J. (ed) (2012) ‘Women’s rights, gay rights and anti-Muslim racism in Europe’, special
section in European Journal of Women’s Studies 19(1/2).
Hunt, S. and Yip, A. (eds.) (2012) The Ashgate research companion to contemporary religion and
sexuality. Farnham: Ashgate.
Jackson, S. and Scott, S. (2010) Theorizing sexuality. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Kuntsman, A. and E. Miyake (eds) (2008) Out of place: interrogating silences in
queerness/raciality. York, England: Raw Nerve Books.
Lassander, M. (2012) ‘Grappling with liquid modernity: Investigating postsecular religion’, in
Nynäs, P., Lassander, M. and Utriainen, T. (eds.) Postsecular Society. New Brunswick and London:
Transaction Publishers.
Lewis, G. (2009) ‘Celebrating intersectionality? Debates on a multi-faceted concept in gender
studies: themes from a conference’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 16(3), pp. 203–210.
Lutz, H., Herrera Vivar, M.T. and Supik, L. (2011) Framing intersectionality: debates on a multifaceted concept in gender studies. Farnham: Ashgate.
19
Mai, N. and King, R. (2009) ‘Love, sexuality and migration: Mapping the issue(s)’, Mobilities, 4(3):
295-307.
Nynäs, P. and Yip, A. (2012) Religion, gender and sexuality in everyday life. Farnham: Ashgate.
Puar, J. K. (2007) Terrorist assemblages: homonationalism in queer times. Durham: Duke
University Press.
Reynolds, T. (2013) ‘“Them” and “us”: “Black neighbourhoods” as a social capital resource
among Black youths living in inner-city London’, Urban Studies 50(3), pp. 484-498.
Richardson, D. (2004) ‘Locating sexualities: from here to normality’, Sexualities 7(4):391-411.
Rogers, A. (2012) ‘“In this our lives.” Invisibility and Black British gay identity’, in Rivers, I. and
Ward, R. (eds.) Out of the ordinary: Representations of LGBT lives. Cambridge, Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
Roseneil, S., Halsaa, B. and Sumer, S. (eds) (2012) Remaking citizenship in multicultural Europe:
women's movements, gender and diversity. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Stychin, C. F. (2003) Governing sexuality : the changing politics of citizenship and law reform.
Oxford: Hart.
Taylor, C. (2007) A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, Y., Hines, S. & Casey, M. (2010) (eds.) Theorizing intersectionality and sexuality.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Taylor, Y. and Snowdon, R. (forthcoming, 2014) Queering religion, religious queers. London:
Routledge.
Trappolin, L., Gasparini, A. and Wintermute, R. (eds.) (2012) Confronting homophobia in Europe:
Social and legal perspectives. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Tremblay, M., Paternotte, D. and Johnson, C. (eds.) (2011) The lesbian and gay movement and
the state: Comparative insights into a transformed relationship. Farnham: Ashgate.
Waites, M. and Kollman, K. (eds.) (2009) Special issue on the global politics of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender human rights. Contemporary Politics, 15 (1).
Ward, J. (2008) Respectably queer: Diversity culture in LGBT activist organizations. Nashville:
Vanderbilt University Press.
Weeks, J., Heaphy, B. and Donovan, C. (2001) Same sex intimacies: families of choice and other
life experiments. London: Routledge.
20
Weeks, J. (2007) The world we have won: The remaking of erotic and intimate life. London:
Routledge.
Weston, K. (1991) Families we choose: lesbians, gays, kinship. New York: Columbia UP.
Yip, A. and Page, S. (forthcoming, 2013) Religious and sexual identities: a multi-faith exploration
of young adults. Farnham: Ashgate.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) Gender and nation. London: Sage.
21