Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • ¡IMPORTANT!
    The submission is anonymous.
    Please read how to Ensure a blind submission for further details.
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The submission file includes an English abstract, keywords and contact person working languages.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines OR I commit to adapting it once it's accepted for publication following copyediting instructions.
  • Copyright notice

    The content is published under the CC 4.0 license (Creative commons 4.0, by, non commercial) as presented at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
    Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
    Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
    Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Author Guidelines

Submission components

— Title.

— Contact person working languages (other than English). It is assumed that “Contact person“ is the one submitting the proposal.

— Abstract: max 180 words.

— Keywords: three to five recommended.

Use semicolon to separate different keywords and comma for specifications/subsets. E.g.: Philosophy, political; Ethics; Aristotle’s Ethics; Linguistics, semantics. You can refer to BISAC subject headings for subjects (broadly), then add content-specific or method-related keywords.

— Article body.

— Signature(s), i.e. full name, affiliation, email, will be included upon publication.

— References.

Author(s) and *Contact person (or principal author) shall not be included in the article text, but only provided during the submission process.

Authors of accepted papers will be required to include a max 100 words long bio. This bio will be included at the end of each article.

Language

Whatever is actively engaged in questioning the hegemony of English and the privilege of English-speaking subjects in international academia. If you are interested in contributing, please consider doing so in the language you are most comfortable with, and in which you can give the most nuanced expression to your position. If you prefer to write in English, please note that this will guarantee broad access to your ideas only if the English in which you phrase them can be understood by your readers; please consider asking for the assistance of a native speaker familiar with the conventions of academic writing in your field.

Layout guidelines

Do not bother with the layout. Layout and text formatting are not something authors should fight with. Do what’s easier for and clearer to yourself. Simpler is better. A few hints:

    • blockquotes should stand out clearly;
    • paragraph titles should be numbered. Up to three sub-levels are supported;
    • if you are going to use images, be sure you can cover for rights or provide images that are under a CreativeCommons license. You will be requested to provide high-resolution files. You will also be asked to provide us with captions in a separate file;
    • references should include the original edition, when applicable;
    • avoid bold.

Citation style

A variation of Harvard author-year citation style is adopted.

Substantive notes are numbered, references are parenthetical (in-text, in round brackets), bibliographical references are required. Compared to Harvard style, we use a simplified punctuation and a “European” style with regard to Publisher-City order.

Quotations and punctuation

Quotation marks: double inverted commas. Use single inverted commas in nested quotations only or when emphasizing a word/phrase and italics does not / can not apply.

Terminal punctuation and superscripts ought to be outside quotation marks.

Superscripts ought to be outside quotation marks and inside terminal punctuation.

In-text references ought to follow quotation marks.

Quoted question marks are of course considered part of the quotation.

Examples:

  • “quoted text”.[superscript]
  • “quoted text” (reference).
  • “quoted text”[superscript, if applicable] (reference).
  • “Is this a question?” (reference).

Usage of capital letters

Essay title: Very first letter only.

References / book title: current English rules apply.

References / article title: Very first letter only.

References / translations: Very first letter only; keep capital letter in language abbreviation (e.g. “Eng. tr.”).

In-text references

Books, essays, published/unpublished conference papers, etc... are all referred to through Author and year.

Commas are used to separate different (multiple) authors. Colons are used instead of “p.” or “pp.”. Semicolons are used to distinguish different works as well as the original edition from a translation in use (if applicable). Letters are used to distinguish different works written by the same author in the same year.

  • Single author:
    • Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi 1994).
    • Rossi (1994) claimed that sophisticated searching...
    • Rossi states that “sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information” (1994: 33).
  • Multiple authors: add et al. (always italicised)

Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi et al. 1994).

  • Translation:

Rossi states that “sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information” (1994: 33; Eng. tr. 1998: 28).

abridged form

Rossi states that “sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information” (1994: Eng. tr. 28).

  • Multiple works:
    • Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi 1994; 1996).
    • Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi 1994; Bianchi 1999).
    • Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi 1994a; 1994b).

Avoid redundancies:

    • Rossi has been working on this subject for almost a decade. In his essay on searching techniques (1994), he states that they are “extremely important in finding information” (33).
    • Rossi has been working on this subject for almost a decade. In his essay on searching techniques (1994), he states that they are “extremely important in finding information” (Eng. tr.: 28).
  • Omonimies: use initial(s)

Sophisticated searching techniques are important in finding information (Rossi G. 1994).

  • Edited books

In their work on searching techniques (Rossi 1994), the Italian team on Information Engineering...

References

References are ordered alphabetically by last name. First personal names ought to be in short form (i.e. name initial(s)). Multiple works from the same author will be ordered by year, most recent to oldest.

Elements of the citation

Books

Author of book – last name first name abridged, Year of publication, ed(s). if applicable, Title of book – italicised, Translator if applicable, Edition if applicable, Publisher, Place of publication.

Examples:

Rossi G., 1994, ed., Information Engineering, ETS, Pisa.

Note: US state abbreviation should always be part of the city name:

e.g.: Cambridge MA (no comma!).

  • Multiple authors (up to three)

First Author of the book – last name, first name abridged, Other Author(s), Year of publication, ed(s). if applicable, Title of book – italicised, Edition if applicable, Publisher, Place of publication.

Examples:

Ross G., Bianchi F., Verde G., 1994, Information Engineering, ETS, Pisa.

  • Multiple authors (more than three): you can use et al.

Rossi G., Bianchi F., Verde G. et al., 1994, Information Engineering, ETS, Pisa.

Please note: et al. is always italicized.

  • Translations (when quoted)

Ricœur P., 1983, Temps et récit, Seuil, Paris; Eng. tr. by D. Pellauer 1990, Time and Narrative, University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL.

Please note that abbreviations for languages keep their capital letter (Eng., Fr., Ger., It., etc...).

Chapter(s) in a book

Author(s) of chapter – last name name initial(s), Year of publication, “Title of chapter – in double quotation marks”, in Editor(s) – family name, first name ed(s)., Title of book – italicised, Edition, Publisher, Place of publication: Page numbers.

Note: when multiple chapters from an edited book are quoted, reference style should reflect non-redundant criteria, thus including a separate reference for the edited book and abridging chapter reference as follows:

Rossi G., Bianchi F., 2013, “Information Engineering”, in Rossi 2013: 9-24.

[i.e.: Author(s) of chapter – last name, first name, Year of publication, “Title of chapter – in double quotation marks”, in Editor(s) Last name Year of publication if not redundant: Page numbers.]

Journal article or newspaper article

Author(s) – last name name initial(s), Year of publication, “Title of chapter – in double quotation marks”, in Title of journal – italicised, Volume, Issue or number: Page number(s).

Examples:

Bhabha H.K., 1985, “Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree Outside Delhi, May 1817”, in Critical Inquiry, 12, 1: 144-165.

Note: With regard to journals, the wide variety of choices and practices may pose several dilemmas. Few possibilities are hereby listed:

    • Yearly journals: use volume number only.
    • Double issues: use hyphen between each number.
    • Special issues: cite extended special issue title if applicable, either add “s” before page numbers, either follow what is written in the front page or cover of the journal:
  • Harper P.B., McClintock A., Muñoz J.E., Rosen T., 1997, eds., Social Text, 52-53, Queer Transexions of Race, Nation, and Gender.
  • ...Critical Inquiry, 12: s1-s18.
  • ...Critical Inquiry, 12, 1 bis: 1-18.
  • ...Critical Inquiry, 12, 1, Spanish edition: 1-18.

Web page

Author(s) of page – {last name first name,} OR organisation name Year (page created or revised), Title of page - italicised, Publisher (if applicable), Place of publication (if applicable), viewed date, URL.

Conference paper

· Published

“Chapter in a book” criteria apply. Title of proceedings – italicised – may include place and date.

· Unpublished

Author(s) – last name, name initial(s), Year of publication, “Title of paper – in double quotation marks”, paper presented to Title of congress meeting should include place and date.

Grey literature

Reference has to include archive/source information, in order to let anyone else find the cited work.

Articles

The general section will welcome papers dealing with any and all aspects of queer theories and studies, and of any of their possible intersections with other disciplines and theories: if you believe that the theoretical productivity, intellectual relevance, and political thrust of queer can be extended and expanded, if you are working at the crossroads between queer and other methods and issues, we want to hear from you!

Contributions are accepted in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Papers should be up to 80.000 characters in length; authors wishing to submit longer works are invited to contact us first explaining their reasons; please write to the managing editor, Giovanni Campolo: giovanni@battitoriliberi.it . Authors are welcome to include a variety of media, such as images, sound files, and audiovisuals.

Papers should be submitted anonymously through the journal website following a guided five-step submission process. Submission checklist and guidelines are available at: https://whatever.cirque.unipi.it/index.php/journal/about/submissions. A detailed submission guide is found at the end of this document.

Whatever is double-blind peer-reviewed, online, open-access.

Submissions for issue 5 are closed.

Publication of issue 5 is expected in June 2022.

There are two deadlines for issue 6: submissions that are received before March 31st 2020 will be reviewed starting July 2022. Submissions that are received from April 1st to October 31st will be reviewed starting November 2022. For the special issue Ephemeral Trans Practices: T-girls, Transvestites and Crossdressers

please read below.

Workflow description

The journal manager anonymizes the submission. The editorial board collectively chooses one anonymous reviewer for a first assessment: the submission may be desk-rejected or assigned to (at least) two anonymous reviewers. Articles may be accepted, rejected, require major adjustments (a second review round starts), require minor adjustments (the editorial staff will check adjustments). Once an article is accepted for publication, it is included in the working issue ToC. Article order is decided exclusively by the editorial board.

Submission and publication timeline

March - Early submitters. The review process starts after the yearly issue is published, usually lasting from July to September.

From April to October - Ordinary submission. The review process starts in October, usually lasting until December.

The whole review process usually takes 16 weeks. The editorial board chooses the first reviewer in 3 weeks. The first desk assessment takes up to two weeks. If an article is accepted for peer review, then reviewers have 3 to 6 weeks to send their evaluation. Once each reviewer’s advice is in, the board may require up to 2 weeks to make a decision.

After that, one month is given to authors for minor adjustments (“Revisions required”) or copyediting adjustments (“Accepted for publication”). Two months are granted if a “Resubmit for review” decision is made; this decision leads to a second and shorter review round.

Each author will receive the first draft of their article within the first week of April. They is required to send their corrections in two weeks. A second draft of the issue is produced on May 22nd. Authors are required to send their corrections no later than May 25th. The editorial staff and the editorial board will run one last check. Eventually, the issue is published (usually on June 20th-22nd).

Performance, subversion, relation: tracing queer in BDSM

Recurring themed section. All articles are double-blind peer-reviewed. General guidelines for submissions apply.

This thematic section seeks contributions investigating the hermeneutic potential of this complex and diverse universe of sexual practices, all sharing specific attention to performance, and to the transformation of power relationships into consensual play. At the same time, it intends to explore, through a comparative approach, representations of sadomasochism, fetishism, and other anti-normative sexual behaviours in literature, arts, and the media, in order to map how BDSM may contribute to identifying sexual and affective practices subverting the heteropatriarchal norm.

BDSM is here considered as a methodological framework staging and subverting the dynamics of power in heteronormative relationships, and as a thematic core which can be traced in very different narratives, from martyrdom in Catholic culture to romantic love as the founding mythology of the heterosexual couple. Therefore, we intend to solicit contributions that explore BDSM through multiple textualities, focusing on interdisciplinary lines of research such as, for example:

  • Representation of BDSM practices in literature and the arts
  • Ecstasy, martyrdom, and the aestheticization of suffering
  • Anti-normative relationalities: BDSM and the ethics of care
  • BDSM, feminism and bodily politics
  • Subversion and parody of heteronormativity

References

  • Bauer R., 2014, Queer BDSM Intimacies. Critical Consent and Pushing Boundaries, Palgrave MacMillan, London-New York.
  • Cruz, A., 2016, The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography, NYU Press, NY.Freeman, E., 2010, “Turn the Beat Around. Sadomasochism, Temporality, History”, in Time Binds. Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, Duke University Press, Durham-London.
  • Fusillo, M., 2012, Feticci. Letteratura, cinema, arti visive, Il Mulino, Bologna, engl. Transl The Fetish. Literature, Cinema, Visual Art, Bloomsbury, New York 2017.
  • Holmes D., Murray S. J., Knack N., Mercier M., Fedoroff P., 2018, “Degenitalizing the Sexual: BDSM practices and the deterritorialization of bodies and pleasures”, in Holmes D., Murray S.J., Foth T. eds., Radical Sex Between Men. Assembling Desire-Machines, Routledge, London-New York: 117‑141.
  • Jenkins H., Gibson P.C., 2003, eds., More Dirty Looks. Gender, Pornography and Power, Palgrave BFI, London.
  • Kien, G., 2011, BDSM and Transgression 2.0. The Case of Kink.com, in Transgression 2.0: Media, Culture, and the Politics of a Digital Age, ed. by T. Gournelos, D. J. Gunkel, Continuum, NY.
  • Langdridge D., Barker M., eds., 2007, Safe, Sane and Consensual, Palgrave MacMillan, New York.
  • Levi, C., 2019 [1979], New kamasutra: Didattica sadomasochistica, intr. L. Bernini, Asterisco, Milano.
  • McClintock A., 1993, “Maid to Order: Commercial Fetishism and Gender Power”, in Social Text 37: 87-116.
  • Ortmann, D., Sprott, R., ed., 2012, Sexual Outsiders: Understanding BDSM Sexualities and Communities, Rowman & Littlefield, Washington DC.
  • Reti I. ed., Unleashing Feminism. Critiquing Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties, HerBooks, Santa Cruz.
  • Scott, C., 2015, Thinking Kink. The Collision of BDSM, Feminism and Popular Culture, McFarland, Jefferson.
  • Weiss, M., 2011, Techniques of Pleasure. BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality, Duke University Press, Durham and London.

Visual Arts through a Queer Lens (1800-2000)

Guest Editors: Sergio Cortesini, Giulia Simi, Ladislav Zikmundlender

We invite to submit papers investigating visual works in any media (from painting and sculpture to experimental cinema and digital media, illustrations, amateur works, posters, fanzines, etc.) that contributed to questioning social categorizations and fostered emancipatory discursive formations, over two centuries (1800-2000 ca). We take queer critique in its broader sense addressing not only sexuality and gender, but also race, age, ability, class. We shall consider all relevant proposals relating any context, but we would be particularly eager to read new research works that combine serious historical investigation in artistic creativity from areas understudied—either historically or geographically. While international art experiences from the 1970s on have often availed themselves of performative languages or new media that are structurally conducive to destabilizing meanings—or were inflected by the burgeoning discourses of Feminism, LGBT movements, de-colonialism and post-colonial narratives —instances of queer resilience are less obvious in earlier times, especially in the classicist or realist styles dominant before the avant-gardes. Therefore, papers that uncovered queer instances during the 19th century, or encoded in traditional realistic styles, would be particularly interesting. On the other hand, visual expressions that challenge the dominant Anglo-American narrative and which engage periphery, both in geographical, social and political meaning, would be promising fields of inquiry.

We welcome papers addressing (but not limited to) these topics:

• (Self)-Representation practices that questioned the social categorizations of gender, sex, ethnicity, social status;
• Queer meanings in experimental cinema, video-art and in performance;
• Artists on the move: migration, antiracism and post-colonial gaze;
• The relationship with feminist theories and movements;
• The artistic contribution to the burgeoning LGBT movement in the 1970s and 1980s;
• Queer subtexts in 19th century;
• Queer experiences within the dictatorships and oppressive regimes: oppression and negotiation with;
• Queer practices challenging the Center narrative from a peripherical context: Southern and Central-Eastern Europe; Non-Western artists working both in Western context and in Latin-America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, non-metropolitan groups.
• Queer spaces and places; queer collections, curating, criticism, and art historiography.

Queering the Family: Exploring Non-Normative Family Figures in Literature, Arts,

Double-blind peer-reviewed themed section. Please read the call for papers before submitting articles to this section.

Masculinities and sex work

Double-blind peer-reviewed themed section for issue 6.

Editors: Giuseppe Burgio (UniKore) and Giulia Selmi (UniVr)

In recent decades in Western societies the sex industry has undergone profound changes. The number of undocumented migrants – especially among street-based sex workers - has significantly increased. At the same time, there has been an increase in indoor sex work, as well as sex work carried out on or through the web, mainly by native people. These changes have also brought about changes in the way sex work is regulated, with very different models coexisting in Europe, ranging from the criminalization of clients to regulation and recognition of rights.

Considering these transformations, research on sex work has in turn diversified and has been able to account for the different forms that sex work can take, both in terms of subjective positionings and in terms of structure.

However, the analysis of the connection between masculinity and sex work remains in the background of contemporary research. On the one hand, although there is no doubt that cis and trans women are the main actors in this market, structurally shaped by gender inequalities, it is possible to trace a progressive visibility of male sex workers who work with male clients, female clients or both. Moreover, clients are men in the vast majority of cases. While some studies have studied clients of cis or trans female sex workers, there is little research on clients of male sex workers. Finally, the topic of trans men, queer, and gender non-conforming masculinities both among workers and clients, seems unexplored,.

From an intersectional perspective, then, the theme of masculinities (already articulated and plural in itself) is complexified by themes such as citizenship, migration, class, and sexual orientation. Finally, masculinities – in addition to the stigma of sex work – can be subjected to forms of heterosexism, genderism, ableism, racism and xenophobia, ageism, ethnocentrism, and so on.

Given this scenario, this call offers a space to explore how the various declinations of masculinity act in the field of sex work. We therefore invite contributions - both empirical and theoretical - that explore, among other possible themes, the following issues:

  • Declination of masculinity among sex workers
  • Different models of masculinity among clients
  • Cis, trans and gender non-conforming masculinities
  • Masculinities in the post-Fordist sex work market
  • Masculinities and personal care services
  • Off line and Online sex work
  • Male sex work and homosocial contexts
  • Construction of masculinities in sex work
  • Cultural construction and representation of male sexual desire
  • Intersectional declinations of masculinities in sex work and clients

Ephemeral Trans Practices: T-girls, Transvestites and Crossdressers

Double-blind peer-reviewed themed section for issue 6 (June 2023) or standalone special issue (September 2023).

Editors: Luca Greco (Université de Lorraine) and Diego Semerene (University of Amsterdam).

Prospective contributors should submit 1000-word abstracts by 19 April 2022. Extended abstracts must include: topic, thesis, type of data, methodological and theoretical approaches, expected conclusions/findings, partial bibliography.

Performing gender, race, nation: the queer turn in contemporary LatinAmerican...

Guest Editor: Gabriele Bizzarri
The constant and significant presence of queer motifs in Latin American literature of the last thirty years should not be glossed over. Of course, the recruiting of yet another imported label, trafficked from the geographical, economic and academic “North” into a third-world context should not be taken for granted; and it will also be important to vigilate over the modes and circumstances of a theoretical landing which will have to negotiate its ambiguous conquests with the specificities of a peripheral context, as witnessed by the stubbornly latino and assertively illiterate attempts at transculturation summarized in the cuir/cuy(r) bid. However, it is just as important to signal that the theory’s antinormative and destabilizing potential seems to find the “natural” context in which to unfold in a continent which, from a number of viewpoints, in the overlapping of its manifold wildcards, emerges into the history of Modernity without being able to fully dwell in any of its categories: from Pedro Lemebel onwards, touching on the narrative fictions of writers like Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Giuseppe Caputo, Ena Lucía Portela, Mayra Santos-Febres, Claudia Hernández, Félix Bruzzone, Camila Sosa Villada... In Latin America queer becomes the emblematic catalyst of the locally active difference in all possible inflections, the ideal trigger of the apocryphal versions of the apparently already written story of the plausible relationships between bodies and territories, versions which pour forth not only from the incongruencies of gender and sexuality, but also from the ethnic, sociopolitical, and epistemic discontinuity which is written in characters of blood in the mind-blowing chronicle of these lands. So that it comes to work as a powerful mechanism of contemporary interpellation of the old and deceitful story of “Latin American identity”.
Contributions will be considered which approach the contemporary Latin American literary text (while not disregarding the cinema and performing arts) through an exploration of, among other possibilities, the following thematic directions:
– Troubling and disobediences related to sex and gender;
– Incongruous conformations and representations of ethnic belonging (queering indigenousness, afrodescencence, “the new mestiz*”...);
– Diverse citizenships and alternative community agreements in Latin America (queering the Nation paradigm);
– “Fashion and pueblo”: queering ¡La Revolución!
– “A not reckless form of memorizing”: dictatorships and queer memory;
– Queer/postcolonial intersections: reopening the “Latin American identity” archives;
– Latin Kitsch and camp: inhabiting the canon from its margins.

Beyond the gender binary. New languages and new practices towards a recognition

Guest Editors: Carmen Ferrara, Alain Giami, Paolo Valerio

The procedures for the recognition of transgender people’s identities are continually evolving, and make a dialogue among the various disciplines and with the queer communities' needs.
Linguistic solutions for the inclusion of individuals who do not recognize themselves as masculine or feminine include singling out new pronouns and terminations, depending on the language, just as bureaucratic pathways to the official recognition of the above identities must be rethought in accordance with the evolution of society and of the demands of the people involved.

We, therefore, welcome theoretical and methodological considerations, empirical enquiries, and transdisciplinary reviews about the needs of people with a non binary gender identity and about the needed adjustments of health systems, health practices, research, and other fields. More specifically, contributions can address, among others, the following issues:

• Comparative inquiries on the norms for the legal recognition of non binary people;
• Case studies of experiences where the “non binary” option was included in demographic polls;
• Representation of non binary people in the media;
• Linguistic options to include non-binary people in neo-Latin languages;
• Gender medicine and non binary people, access to health services;
• The condition of non binary people in prisons;
• Non binary gender from an anthropological perspective;
• Non binary people in public spaces. How to plan inclusive cities;
• Enbyphobia in the LGBTI community;
• Forced migration of non binary people, asylum requests and immigration policies.

Contributions will be evaluated according to their originality and innovation with regard to both content and method.

Copyright Notice

Whatever is an open access journal, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. Our articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence 4.0 by-nc, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.

Authors hold copyright without restrictions. Also, authors retain publishing rights on their articles; however, it is recommended to keep track of the CC-BY-NC license and to quote original publication.

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