What kinds of feminist futures might be imagined through the study of boys and boyhoods? The Affirmative Feminist Boys Studies Research Group invites expressions of interest for a planned special issue of Australian Feminist Studies, exploring diverse approaches for reconfiguring the boy as a research subject and object, and inviting new and refined feminist theories and methods for understanding youth and masculinity.

We seek contributions from scholars in any discipline and contributions that cross disciplinary boundaries are also welcome. Contributions can be between 6,000 words and 8,000 words for research articles. Shorter polemical pieces up to 5,000 words can be considered for the ‘Feminist Debates’ section. Co-authored and multiple-voiced pieces are welcome. All submissions will be peer-reviewed as per the journal’s policies.

Guest contributing editors: Catherine Driscoll (University of Sydney), Liam Grealy (University of Sydney), Timothy Laurie (University of Technology Sydney) and Shawna Ser Wei Tang (University of Sydney).

Potential areas for consideration include but are not limited to:
• How do ideas about gender identity shape medical and developmental understandings of boys? For example, how might the scope or prevalence of medical diagnoses be shaped by gendered understandings of boyhood and trans boyhood?
• How can intersectional approaches to diverse boyhoods revise, extend, or displace existing paradigms for the study of boys? For example, how might racialised and gendered assumptions shape analyses and approaches towards boys of colour?
• How do policy discourses and institutional expectations shape ideas and practices around boyhood, gender relations, and youth development?
• How have digital media platforms, mobile technologies, and online communities contributed to new practices or discourses around boyhood?
• How does the concept of role modelling continue to shape contemporary understandings masculinity for boys and boyhood, and how might role modelling be reimagined or challenged?
• What do contemporary articulations of “consent culture” mean for boys, and how might boyhood be imagined differently in relation to public debates around sexual consent and sexual violence?
• How have news media and popular media concerning boys contributed to or detracted from complex understandings of boys and boyhoods?
• What might novel methodological approaches offer to the production of new, diverse, or unexpected stories about boys?

Your expression of interest (300 wds max) should provide a title, indicate what questions or ideas you wish to address, proposed length of your submission, and your key words. Please include contact details and a short bio note.

EOIs should be emailed as word documents. Invitations to submit will be issued shortly after this date to those accepted. Full submissions will be due 24 November 2023.