Journal of Homosexuality - Exploring the materialities of queer(ing) rural lives:
Queer subjectivities and methodologies
Efforts to “queer” international development begun in the late 20th century, when activists, scholars, and NGOs began challenging heteronormative assumptions embedded in mainstream development policies.
Early critiques argued that established models largely ignored the realities of sexual and gender minorities, perpetuating the notion that same-sex desires or nonconforming gender expressions were “invisible” or peripheral to broader development goals (Rahman, 2014; Rao, 2020). The flow of development assistance from the Global North to the South contributed to a dominant discourse in which the Global North was tacitly framed as the locus of “progressive” LGBTQ+ rights, while the Global South was depicted as lagging behind — a narrative often referred to as “homocolonialist” (Rahman, 2014; Rao, 2020).
These critiques catalyzed a movement to integrate gender and sexual diversity within development work, building on the health advocacy and community led programs which were developed to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in the early 1980s (King et al., 2020). Human rights organizations, academics, and local advocacy groups have identified gaps in understanding the experiences and needs of people with diverse SOGIE beyond sexual, reproductive and public health, including participation in public life, access to resources and economic inclusion. Over the past three decades, although some academic and policy-oriented work has addressed these gaps, much of the literature continues to note the lack of comprehensive research rather than bridging it
(Knott and Gustavsson 2022; Hoffelmeyer, 2021; Keller, 2014).
Types of Submissions Accepted
- Scholarly article - word count for full article submissions up to 10,000 words, including footnotes, author bio, and abstract.
- Book and performance art reviews, and
- Short blog style article submissions from activists, and/or queer people participating in, and contributing to agricultural and fisheries labour and/or living in rural or coastal areas. Between 1,200 - 1,500 words, including any footnotes and author bio.
This special edition offers an important and long overdue contribution to these urgent issues and invites work which addresses topics including (but not limited to):
- The socioeconomic and/or cultural dimensions of queer(ing) development including how family structures, kinship obligations, and cultural and community norms shape the lived experiences of individuals with diverse genders and sexualities; and/or those who seek to build lives outside heteronormative family and farming/fishing structures.
- The visibility and experiences of queer labour and livelihoods, the formal and informal labour contributions and experiences of people of diverse SOGIE across agricultural, forestry and fisheries value chains; and
- Access to donor support and participation in national, regional and/or international advocacy platforms noting that visibility is a key—and contested—strategy. On one hand, increased visibility of LGBTQ+ issues can yield international donor support and policy traction (Currier, 2012); on the other, it risks exposing communities to scapegoating and hostility (Angotti et al., 2019; Saltnes and Thiel, 2021).
Submission Details
Deadline for consideration: 1 February 2026.
Complete manuscripts: 1 July 2026.
Format: Microsoft Word
Email: Christina Kenny & Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
The editors can also answer any questions.
Dr Christina Kenny
Is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of New England, Australia. She works on issues of gender, human rights and development with a focus on colonial histories, gendered citizenship, and gender and sexuality rights in the Global South. She is the founder of the Gender and Rurality Research Collective, and is currently engaged in the experiences of queer fishers in Samoa. Her monograph with James Currey (UK), Reimagining the Gendered Nation: Human Rights and Citizenship in Post-colonial Kenya, focuses on Kenyan women’s gender and citizenship rights. She argues that human rights discourse creates particular kinds of recipients of rights, and often compels these subjects to inhabit their new, human rights-based identities in limiting and problematic ways. Over the last 15 years, Christina has worked with a variety of human rights-based organisations in research, policy development and advocacy in Australia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli AM
Is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. A founding member of the Australian LGBTIQA+ Multicultural Council (AGMC) in 2004, Maria is an academic, author, activist and ally in the intersections of cultural diversity, gender and sexual diversity, relationship and family diversity. She is also a founding member of Ascolta Italian Women in 2020, a group of academics, writers, artists and community leaders critiquing, decolonising and celebrating Italian heritage and culture. She is on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Bisexuality, the Journal of Homosexuality, and the Journal of Intercultural Studies and Journal of LGBT Youth. Her current project is Mobs and Wogs: First Peoples and Southern European migrants in Australia (forthcoming), exploring the contestations and connections between colonialism, racism and multiculturalism.
