Targeted CFP: Routledge International Handbook of Global Asexualities and Aromanticisms

Targeted Call For Papers
Routledge International Handbook of Global Asexualities and Aromanticisms

Co-edited by: Ela Przybyło (Illinois State University) and Yo-Ling Chen (Independent Scholar)

Deadline for abstracts: November 15, 2025                    Contact email: globalacearo(at)gmail(dot)com

In the past two decades, asexuality and aromanticism studies scholarship has grown exponentially, reflecting the rise of asexual and aromantic communities around the world. The majority of scholarship in asexuality and aromanticism studies, however, remains either on Anglophone ace/aro communities, primarily in North America, or situated in Western sexual epistemologies. This edited volume gathers together scholarship on ace and aro identities, and their translations and circulations both outside of Western contexts and beyond Western colonial knowledge frames, as well as scholarship on how desexualization and romance have been implicated in projects of racialization, coloniality, and nation-building across contexts.

We are specifically looking for submissions from Africa, South and Central America, Central and West Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe; diasporic communities of the aforementioned contexts; and Indigenous Nations, communities, and knowledges anywhere in the world to complement our already existing contributions.

Submissions could explore but are not limited to:

• expressions and articulations of asexualities and aromanticisms from the aforementioned contexts
• explorations of compulsory romance and sexuality in the aforementioned contexts
• desexualization, imposed celibacy, and sterilization as it relates to historical and/or present day projects of racialization, colonialism, and nation-building
• elective celibacies, singlehood, and friendship practices across geopolitical contexts and in dialogue with ace and aro theories
• asexuality and aromanticism in relation to sex/gender expansive embodiments, including but not limited to: intersex, transgender, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and agender subjectivities
• transnational feminist approaches to marriage refusal
• castration and eunuchism in dialogue with ace and aro theories

Please email abstracts to globalacearo(at)gmail(dot)com by November 15, 2025. We are seeking submissions of abstracts of around 500 words, with a short Works Cited/Bibliography, along with a 100-word bio for each author. We especially welcome pieces that are already under development or in progress, as long as they fit within the CFP. Accepted contributors will be asked to submit pieces of up to 8,000 words, due by February 15, 2026 (see anticipated timeline below). We are requesting abstracts that propose academic pieces, short essays (around 2,000 words), and are open to other formats, including but not limited to works-in-translation and interviews. If you have an idea for a piece but want to check if we would be interested, please feel free to send us an email to inquire.

This edited volume project is under consideration with Routledge and has received three favorable peer reviews.

Anticipated timeline:

CFP for abstracts closes: November 15, 2025

Abstract decisions: November 30, 2025

First full drafts due: February 15, 2026

Editorial feedback given to authors: March 7, 2026

Revised/Final drafts due: April 15, 2026

Copyediting and Proofs: Summer/Fall 2026

Anticipated publication date: 2027