12–14 March 2026

Queer Bibliography in the South:

Space, Place, Community

Athens, GA and online

Queer Bibliography invites proposals for papers considering how gender, sexuality, and textuality intersect with place in the production of queer identity.

In the current political environment, the US American South is regarded as a regressive region for LGBTQ+ rights. However, the South has a rich and thriving intersectional history, carried out and carried on by community organizations, bookstores, libraries and archives, and in private spaces. Over a third of all queer Americans reside in Southern states, 40% of whom are people of color. Queer Bibliography in the South seeks to highlight how the dynamics of space and place (both within and outside of the American South) have influenced queer and trans bibliographic history, calling attention to the ways that the queer material presences are produced, documented, preserved, and promoted within a variety of communities: rural and urban, local and international, institutional and communitarian. 

We invite papers that consider how places and spaces constitute the material production, dissemination, survival, and reception of queer histories: How have regional, local, or place-based groups produced or utilized queer bibliographic practices? In what spaces or places does queer and trans bibliography occur? Are queer and trans bibliographic practices regionally specific? How do the specificities of institutional, archival, or communal space impact queer book work? Where is queer bibliography now? 

This three-day hybrid conference (both in person and online) will be hosted at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA, USA) on March 12–14, 2026. The conference will feature an opening plenary, given by Professor Jaime Harker (University of Mississippi, author of The Lesbian South (2018), Middlebrow Queer (2013), and owner-founder of Violet Valley Bookstore, Water Valley, MS); two days of panels; and a roundtable with queer history practitioners. It will be followed, on March 14, by an optional printing workshop hosted by artists and scholars Eilleen Wallace and Annika Kappenstein. The conference welcomes participants from a diverse range of fields and career stages, including: book arts practitioners, activists, postgraduates, early career researchers, independent scholars, librarians, archivists, and booksellers, both in person and via Zoom. A small number of bursaries will be available to support contingent speakers traveling to Athens.

Participants will be invited to submit a 2000-word pre-circulated paper, before presenting in panels of 10-minute papers. We also welcome alternative presentations, in whatever form they may take. Contributors should submit an abstract of 200–300 words, along with a short bio, here: https://forms.gle/RLK7sc9EiaZs6SrN8

The deadline for submission is midnight on October 20th; prospective speakers will be informed of the outcome by the end of the day on November 17th.

The local organising committee are: J. D. Sargan, Kathryn Manis, Elizabeth Ott (Emory University), Channette Romero, and Eileen Wallace. Any questions should be directed to queerbibliography@gmail.com.