1. Call for Papers

Get your article published in an internationally indexed journal with a high  impact factor of  1. 73.  International Journal of Socio-Legal Analysis and Rural Development (IJSARD) is an online quarterly peer reviewed international journal on ‘Law’ and ‘Rural Development’. As the name suggests the journal will focus on the analysis of different laws for better understanding and research. The society needs the laws for proper functioning and thus the journal focuses to draw a special emphasis on various disciplines of social sciences, rural development and analysis of various aspects of law to improve the quality of research and explore the more realistic aspects of civilization’s sustainable developments. Establishing equilibrium between the society and law it will find the present and futuristic scope of growth and prosperity. Rural development is an essential part of a sustainable society.

Who are we?
We are Dr Bérénice Schramm, CÉDIM, UQÀM/ Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS (Laws and Gender Studies), Dr Grietje Baars, City, University of London (Laws), Dr Rahul Rao, SOAS (International Politics) and Dr Ralph Wilde, UCL (Laws).

Why set up a queer CRN now?
There’s a sudden surge in Queer Theory being applied to answer questions that lie beyond identity and sexuality. Perhaps this is because in the current world we need all the tools we can get, or because Queer Theory in particular lends itself in shedding a new light on old problems, and bringing to the fore creative new ways of intervening. The past years have seen exciting developments in Queer IR Theory (e.g. Cynthia Weber’s recent book), Queer Political Economy (the work of Nikita Dhawan, Antke Engel  and others) and also Queer Theory & International Law (the work of Dianne Otto and others). Now is the time to harness this energy, combine forces and exchange ideas. We can shape the CRN as we see fit, an online platform, mailing list, panels, meetings, whatever works best for everybody.

What is the LSA?
The Law & Society Association is a multidisciplinary platform, which hosts research networks and has a very large international conference, usually in the US but this summer in Mexico City. It’s about 50% legal scholars from around the world, and about 50% sociologists, criminologists, IR scholars, political scientists, etc. Most attendees and conference topics align with progressive left thinking, for example the theme for Mexico is Walls, Borders, and Bridges: Law and Society in an Inter-Connected World. 

For more info see: http://www.lawandsociety.org/index.html

What is the CRN’s description?
Queer theory in (international) law focuses on disrupting established meanings while bridging identity and disciplinary boundaries, shedding light on the interconnected-ness of patterns of domination and invisibilization engendered by legal technologies and narratives at various levels and in particular with regards to biopolitics and the governance of social life. Queering (international) law means examining and disrupting the discipline’s (re-)production through the othering, in medias, policy-making, legislation, adjudication (including litigation strategy) and activism, of certain bodies, identities, subjectivities and conceptions of sovereignty globally. More generally, this theoretical approach seeks to ‘queer’ law’s boundaries and binaries (‘bindings’) that serve to uphold current structures of oppression that not only affect queer subjects, but (other) gendered, racialized, classed, (dis)abled subjects as well as those who are ‘bound’ through law’s ordering of subjects on the basis of such legal technologies as ‘citizenship’, ‘immigration status’, etc. Queer (international) legal theory, in critically exploring the oppressive and emancipatory potentials of said othering, ‘binding’ and rupture (through and/or in spite of law) is an important intellectual component of the quest for a juster global rooted in the local, the communal and the personal.

What does being a CRN member entail?
It entails as much and as little as you’d like! You could be a passive member, just receiving our emails and calls for papers for panels at the LSA and other relevant conferences, perhaps the occasional article published by a member, or you could become an organising committee member, participate in the panels, contribute your articles, set up a blog, join our launch drinks in Mexico this summer, and take an active part in shaping the CRN’s future, it’s up to you! There’s no membership fee for the CRN.

What should I do now?
If this sounds potentially of interest to you, please drop us a line to say so, and please add whether you are an LSA member or not (this is not a requirement but we need to know the number of members/non-members).