Call for Papers – “Queer in the Clinic” (Special Issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities)

(pulled from the Lit-Med mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/lit-med?hl=en)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities: "Queer in the Clinic"
Guest Editors: Lance Wahlert and Autumn Fiester

We invite the submission of abstracts for a special issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities, which will consider queer perspectives on and queer
experiences in the clinic. While all professionals and patients face dilemmas within the medical sphere, for LGBTQ individuals the stakes are
especially pronounced and complicated. According to critical theorists like Michel Foucault and others, the clinic is an intensely problematic space for
queers because many of their identities and categories were born there. While debatable, such a historical and scholastic legacy hangs heavy over
our readings and renderings of gay and trans persons in the medical realm. Stated succinctly: Historically having been born out of medical pathology,
how do queer persons understand and even reconcile their relationships to the clinic today?



This special issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities will be concerned with the voices and perspectives of LGBTQ persons in the medical sphere –
the dilemmas they face in the clinic, the influences that sexuality and gender identity have on a person’s patient-hood, and the factors that
create distinctively queer perspectives on medicine

Some over-arching questions that inform this special issue include:
- What does the experience of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex in a medical encounter look like – as either patient or
health-care provider?
- How do queer sexualities and gender identities factor into clinical relationships, the experience of being ill, and the negotiations for
treatment and care?
- Does a pervading heteronormativity impinge upon queer patients, their partners, families, caregivers, or health care providers?
- What does homophilic or queer-affirming clinical care look like?
- How do homosexuality and gender-nonconformity affect/effect some of the most vulnerable patient populations: children, adolescents, the elderly, and
the disabled?

Submissions are welcome in a wide range of scholastic and methodological forms for this special issue on "Queer in the Clinic," including:
- Literary analyses
- Historical and historiographical studies
- Philosophical interventions
- Visual and cinema studies projects
- Photojournalistic pieces
- Autobiographical memoirs
- Anthropological and sociological studies
- Bioethical commentaries
- Religious studies perspectives
- And artistic representations of queerness

Abstract submissions should be 1,000-1,500 words in length and are due by February 15, 2011. Abstracts should be submitted to:
submissions@queerbioethics.org.
It is anticipated that this special issue will be published in Spring/Summer 2012.

The Journal of Medical Humanities publishes original papers reflecting its broad perspective on interdisciplinary studies of medicine and medical
education. Research findings emerge from three areas of investigation: medical humanities, cultural studies, and pedagogy. Medical humanities
coverage includes literature, history, philosophy, and bioethics as well as areas of the social and behavioral sciences that have strong humanistic
traditions. Inquiries based on cultural studies may include multidisciplinary activities involving the humanities; women's,
African-American, and other critical studies; media studies and popular culture; and sociology and anthropology. Lastly, pedagogical perspectives
elucidate what and how knowledge is made and valued in medicine, how that knowledge is expressed and transmitted, and the ideological basis of medical
education.