Queerness as a Border State

This special session seeks papers that focus on queerness as a border and yet at the same time as an inextricable element for what is imagined as center, centrality, normativity, etc. to properly function. We can interpret queerness in a number of productive ways, as theorized by Eve Sedgwick in her essay "Queer and Now" as "all the ways that race, ethnicity, [and] post-colonial nationality criss-cross with [gender and sexuality] and other identity-constituting, identity-fracturing discourses." "Border State" can also be explored in many capacious ways, as a fault line between non-linear and linear temporality, between reality and fiction, between non-normative space and normative geography, and between polarized sexualities. Any papers befitting this description will be more than welcome, but priority will be given to those investing in these issues with their focus on American, English, and Irish literature. Please submit 250-300 word abstract, including paper title, academic affiliation, and contact information to Heejoung Shin at shinh@uwm.edu by April 30th.