Weird Genres, Weird Gender 

For MSA 2026, Loughborough UK (July 1-4)

I am interested in putting together a panel proposal with scholars working in the spaces of genre fiction in the early/mid 20th century, including romance, science fiction, westerns, horror/occult, detective fiction, historical fiction, adventure fiction, and children’s fiction, with an eye to representations of gender and sexuality. Analyses that bridge early 20th century genre study with contemporary genre narratives and adaptations are also welcome. 

Some possible topics could include

• Studies of writers who crossed or played with the genre/gender divide (Dorothy Sayers in detective fiction; Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr. in science fiction, etc.)

• Writers whose apparently conventional gender plots might not be so conventional, or characterized by weird moments (i.e., romance writer Elinor Glynn and her domme novel Three Weeks)

• Writers of literary fiction and poetry (“modernists”) who played with / in genre, including queer, trans, and gender non-conforming / non-binary authors like Radclyffe Hall or Bryher. 

• Gender, Race, and Empire in the genres

• African American genre writing (Oscar Micheaux, Pauline Hopkins...)

• Theoretical / conceptual papers that explore the emergence of genre and the blurring and interplay between genre categories. Are westerns just romance fiction for straight men? Is the figure of the detective inherently queer? When and where do the imperialist-cis-white-straight conventions of adventure fiction break down?

• Quantitative/computational approaches that use NLP or other DH methods to analyze gendered language in genre fiction at scale  

• Edge genres, weird genres, genres yet to be delineated

Send inquiries or 250 word abstracts to Amardeep Singh (amsp@lehigh.edu) by December 15. 

At this point I am aiming to submit a panel proposal for the in-person version of the conference, though depending on panelist preference we can aim for the remote version instead. (When submitting abstracts, please indicate preference for in-person or virtual.)