Spring 2023 Call for Papers

Theme: Girlhood and Sexuality at Intersections of Performance, Relations, and Representations

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NEOS welcomes submissions for the Spring 2023 issue: Girlhood and Sexuality at Intersections of Performance, Relations, and Representations. From Margaret Mead’s (1928) classic study of girlhood in Samoa to the more contemporary She’s Mad Real by Oneka LaBennett (2011), Shapeshifters by Aimee Meredith Cox (2015), and The Violence of Care by Sameena Mulla (2014), anthropologists have long taken the world of girls as serious points of inquiry into power and resistance as well as pleasure and imagination. While girlhood varies across time and place, living amid multiple axes of power means that the world is often a complicated place for girls and young women as they navigate their gender identities, roles, and performances. Sexuality further brings girls and young women into contact with acts of violence, processes of consent, and receiving (or being denied) care. The Spring 2023 issue seeks to explore the worlds of girls and young women through interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary conversations between anthropology and gender and sexuality studies more widely. We invite submissions that focus on primary and original research with girl children and young women around the themes of the issue:

  1. Violence, Consent, and Care
    • Gendered and sexualized violence experienced by girls and young women
    • Responses from parents and caregivers, politico-legal systems, and systems of care, including the health care system, to gendered and sexualized violence
    • Navigation of sex and sexuality within intimate partner relationships
    • Initiatives that support consent, empowerment, and resistance as it pertains to gendered and sexualized violence
    • Young women’s definitions of and perspectives on pleasure, enjoyment, and fun
  1. Gendered Expectations, Roles, and Performativity
    • Socio-cultural influences on the experience and performance of gender identity
    • Experiences of girls and young women in conforming to, transgressing, and resisting roles and expectations
    • Queer approaches to girlhood and womanhood including gender and heterosexual subversion
    • Girls’ engagement with gendered representations in media and popular culture
    • Girl empowerment and participatory action projects

We invite short-form original research articles (1,200 words max, excluding references) that address the issue’s theme. NEOS also welcomes short pieces (1,200 words max, excluding references) on scholarship and applied research that uplifts racial, economic, and social justice and the dismantling of systemic oppression, for a dedicated standing column on anti-racism and equity in child and youth studies.

NEOS is an open-access publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group (ACYIG) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). We publish research on childhood and youth from scholars working across the four fields of anthropology, as well from those interdisciplinary fields in conversation with anthropological theories and methods. Articles published in NEOS undergo a double-anonymous peer-review process.

The deadline for submissions is February 16, 2023 (end of the day). Rolling submissions prior to February 16th are also welcome.  While not required, authors are encouraged to submit a brief message about their intent to submit to the Co-Editors by February 2nd, 2023. The NEOS Editorial Team may be reached at acyig.editor@gmail.com Visit our website for further information on NEOSas well as submission guidelines and instructions. You may access the submission portal for the Spring 2023 issue here.