Call for Papers - Judith Butler: Transits, Displacements, and Contemporary Disputes
Call for Papers
Judith Butler: Transits, Displacements, and Contemporary Disputes
Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science invites submissions for a dossier on Judith Butler – Transits, Displacements, and Contemporary Disputes, to be published in the December 2026 issue.
Judith Butler’s work occupies an inescapable place in contemporary philosophical and political debates. Far from remaining confined to a specific disciplinary field or a fixed theoretical tradition, Butler’s thought is marked by conceptual, epistemological, and political movements that destabilize the boundaries between philosophy, feminist theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, social critique, and political philosophy.
To speak of Butler’s thought as a form of transit is to recognize a theoretical practice that moves across different currents and critical horizons – from Hegel to Foucault, from Freud to critical theory, from phenomenology to deconstruction – producing decisive displacements in the ways we think about the subject, language, normativity, power, and recognition. This movement does not remain restricted to the field of gender theory: it extends to reflections on state violence, war, mourning, precarity, assembly, cohabitation, the ethics of nonviolence, and critiques of contemporary forms of nationalism and sovereignty.
The reception of Butler’s work has been closely associated with the consolidation of Gender Studies over the past three decades, yet her oeuvre largely exceeds this framework. By challenging categories such as sex, identity, agency, and materiality, Butler also reshapes debates on democracy, vulnerability, freedom, ethical responsibility, and the conditions of appearance in the public sphere.
This dossier proposes a critical reassessment of Butlerian thought in its plurality, seeking to create a space for international dialogue that does not reduce her contribution to gender debates alone, but rather recognizes the complexity and the displacements that characterize her intellectual trajectory.
We welcome submissions that:
- Develop rigorous theoretical analyses of the conceptual architecture of Butler’s work, its influences, dialogues, and critical receptions in different geopolitical contexts;
- Critically reassess central categories such as performativity, recognition, precarity, assembly, ethical responsibility, cohabitation, and nonviolence;
- Explore articulations between Butler and other theoretical fields – critical theory, decolonial thought, psychoanalysis, contemporary political philosophy, race studies, disability studies, religious studies, among others;
- Analyze contemporary disputes surrounding the so-called “gender ideologies,” moral panics, and conservative crusades that mobilize (often in distorted ways) the public reception of her work;
- Propose essayistic experimentations that challenge gender as an analytical category and expand the epistemological possibilities opened by Butlerian thought.
The aim is to build an experimental and critical dossier that, by revisiting Judith Butler’s work, enables a rethinking of the contemporary conditions of life, recognition, and political action on a global scale.
Submission details:
- To be considered for the December 2026 issue, submissions must be received by September 1st, 2026,via the journal webpage historiographyofscience.org.
- Papers should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s guidelines for authors and formatted for double-anonymised review.
- Notification of acceptance will be sent on October 15, 2026.
For any further information concerning this Call for Papers, please contact:
Marina S. Duarte - Federal University of Minas Gerais
Email: marina.silva.duartee@gmail.com
Jonatan Jackson Sacramento - Federal University of São João del-Rei
Email: jsacramento@ufsj.edu.br
For any further information concerning this Journal, please contact:
Mauro L. Condé - Federal University of Minas Gerais
Email: mauroconde@ufmg.br
Fábio R. Leite - Federal University of São João del-Rei
Email: frleite@ufsj.edu.br
