Deadline August 31, 2016: 500-word abstract & author CV due (submitted to John Pruitt at john.pruitt@uwc.edu<mailto:john.pruitt@uwc.edu>)
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In 1995, George Haggerty and Bonnie Zimmerman’s landmark volume Professions of Desire: Lesbian and Gay Studies in Literature (MLA), followed by William Spurlin’s Lesbian and Gay Studies and the Teaching of English (NCTE, 2000), began addressing the esoteric discussions that complicate intersections among gender, sexuality, and other identity constructs within the English classroom. Given the perpetuation of heteronormativity in the educational system, Haggerty encourages instructors to help LGBT students “learn about the politics of oppression in their own lives as well as in the cultural context that, after all, determines what they mean when they call themselves lesbian or gay.” Building on this premise, the contributors to Spurlin’s volume believe it vital to interrupt familiar patterns of thinking and thereby broaden possibilities for perceiving, interpreting, and representing issues of power related to the teaching of lesbian and gay languages and literatures.
This call for book chapters seeks to reinvigorate this conversation at a pedagogical level. While theoretical analyses of LGBT literature remain common, approaches to teaching LGBT literature, particularly at the post-secondary level, warrant new attention. When you’re presented with a classroom of students new to LGBT literature, how do you teach them? What do you teach them? Why? And in a moment that values intersectionality and collapsing canons, what does “LGBT literature” mean?
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
1. Approaches to/implications of teaching specific texts by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans* writers
2. Approaches to/implications of teaching these texts in both LGBT specific courses and in broader surveys
3. Explorations of what it means to enact queer approaches to literary instruction
4. Limitations of/opportunities for teaching these texts from the intro. survey to the graduate seminar
5. Articulations of course designs and textual selections
6. Approaches to designing LGBT courses, seeking course approval, etc.
7. Special considerations for teaching LGBT children’s and young adult literature
TARGET AUDIENCE
We seek contributions that will be useful references for post-secondary English instructors from community colleges to Research 1 institutions.
EDITORS
John Pruitt, English Department, University of Wisconsin-Rock County (john.pruitt@uwc.edu<mailto:john.pruitt@uwc.edu>)
Will Banks, English Department, East Carolina University (banksw@ecu.edu<mailto:banksw@ecu.edu>)
PUBLISHER
The book will be submitted to Peter Lang.
PROJECT TIMELINE
–August 31, 2016: 500-word abstracts & author CVs due (submitted to John Pruitt at john.pruitt@uwc.edu<mailto:john.pruitt@uwc.edu>)
–January 2017: Initial chapter drafts due
–April 2017: Revised chapter drafts due
–July 2017: Collection submitted to publisher