We invite contributors for a proposed Exemplaria special issue on Medieval Asexualities.

We invite contributors to an Exemplaria special issue on asexuality and medieval studies with a particular focus on crafting emerging frameworks that apply the theoretical insights of asexuality studies, particularly compulsory sexuality, to the premodern world. In particular, we seek proposals that establish, synthesize, or trouble the relationship of asexuality studies with existing research on medieval virginities and chastities. We welcome contributions that might historicize the development of compulsory sexuality; examine asexual readings of medieval texts occluded by critics’ allonormativity; probe the intersections of medieval asexualities with race, disability, and gender; or consider asexuality alongside medieval devotional and theological discourses. We encourage proposals that take a global or comparative perspective on medieval asexualities.

Though the focus of this special issue is on asexualities, we also welcome contributions that take up medieval aromanticisms and aromantic studies. We see this special issue as continuing the dialogue between asexuality studies and the premodern begun by scholars such as Liza Blake, Simone Chess, Catherine Clifford, and Aley O’Mara, among others, who have insightfully extended the ambit of asexuality studies to the early modern period.

Please send proposals in the form of abstracts of 200-300 words to Danielle Allor (dallor@haverford.edu) and Abigail Greff (greff.9@osu.edu) by August 15, 2025. If accepted for consideration for the special issue, essays would be 7,000-8,000 words, with first drafts due to editors in August 2026. After a round or two of editorial feedback, essays would then undergo the journal’s anonymous peer review process, with final publication decisions based on the outcome of that process.