Queering Ecopsychology
Deadline: 01/06/2012
Ecopsychology potentially has a lot in common with queer theory and politics. Both are committed to transformational practices without drawing clear lines between personal and political, social and ecological. They both blur other boundaries, questioning taken for granted borders (e.g., between heterosexuality and homosexuality or self and ecosystem). Both have roots in feminism and include ongoing efforts to deepen awareness of intersecting patterns of power and oppression. Both invite us to expand our experiences of intimacy and relationships.
At the same time, Ecopsychology, like any other area of thought, has the potential to develop borders, orthodoxies. In what ways might those be softened, crossed, queered? What does queer theory, queer politics, have to offer to the tasks of radicalising ecopsychology, of keeping it vital?
In this special issue, the European Journal of Ecopsychology seeks to bring together writing by scholars, activists, therapists and other practitioners exploring the fertile edge between ecopsychology and queer. The journal accepts a variety of types of writing. See http://eje.wyrdwise.com/ojs/index.php/EJE/about/editorialPolicies#sectionPolicies for details.
Areas that might be addressed include:
- Expanding concepts of relationships and understandings of sexuality, noting how perceptions become narrow (e.g., through problematic normativity, self-scrutiny, consumerism, etc) and exploring how such expansions might enable more connectedness.
- How might/does a queer emphasis on playfulness help take the edge off of eco-earnestness? What might playful queer practices and theories contribute to ecopsychological methods of conversation and transformation? How might ecological discussions and other actions be seriously playful and playfully serious?
- 'Think of the children!': heteronormativity, the (re)production of capitalism and ecological discourse. How might a queerly ecopsychological approach reconsider family, care and (population) growth?
- The unsustainability of (hetero or homo) normativity. How much energy does it take to conform? How might queer deconstructions make discussions and practices of ecological alternatives easier?
- Getting dirty. How might queer contribute to explorations of fear and shame, embodiment and desire in sexuality and ecology?
- Queering taxonomy: species, sexualities, psychologies, genders, races and other categories of control. How 'natural' are the binaries of gender and sexuality we've been taught to believe in? How do taxonomies of psychopathology relate to other taxonomies of humans and of the more than human world?
- Ecofeminism and queer theory. The former has been dismissed as essentialist with the latter deconstructing discourses of 'the natural'. Is there room for a reunion between the two? What might grow at this edge?
- Care of the self, care of the earth. What would happen if Joanna Macy and the late Foucault met to talk tactics? What do indigenous queer perspectives have to offer to vital questions of loving ourselves and the earth?
- Queers in the wild. What might radical faeries, women's communes and festivals, gay male cruising grounds, queer ecotherapists and ecoactivists, queer pagans and gardeners and other queer spaces/practices have to offer to the process of queering ecopsychology?
- Queer temporalities. How might queer discussions of time connect with and contribute to ecopsychological emphasis on cyclical versus linear experiences of time?
- Ecoqueer social movements. In what ways are queer activists expanding and exploring ecological justice? How might a queer focus on the potential fluidity of emotions and desires, genders and sexualities transform Transition Towns, Climate Camps, NGOs and other ecological movements?
- And so much more! We'd love to be surprised by other areas of overlap, synergy and compassionate critique contributors might come up with.
Writers whose work might be considered: Sara Ahmed, Gloria Anzaldua, Bruce Bagemihl, Judith Butler, Octavia E. Butler, Silvia Federici, Andy Fisher, Michel Foucault, Greta Gaard, Greg Garrard, Paul Goodman, Felix Guattari, Ursula K. Le Guin, Judith Halberstam, Chaia Heller, Sandra Jeppensen, Carl Jung, Joanna Macy, Timothy Morton, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, Sasha Roseneil, Mary-Jayne Rust, Andrew Samuels, Benjamin Heim Shepard, Kath Weston and so many more exploring the transdisciplinary realms of queer theory, ecopsychology, political ecology, queer ecology, eco-criticism, critical race theory, queer geography and beyond.
The EJE also very much welcomes non-academic writing drawing on experience in activism, therapy, spirituality and other practices involving psychological and ecological aspects.
EJEinformation for authors: http://eje.wyrdwise.com/ojs/index.php/EJE/information/authors
Queries to guest editors: Meg Barker <meg@megbarker.com>, Martin Milton <M.Milton@surrey.ac.uk> &/or Jamie Heckert <jamie.heckert@gmail.com>
