Duke University Press will begin publishing a transgender studies journal in 2014.
The journal—TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly— will be edited by Susan Stryker, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Arizona, and Paisley Currah, professor of political science at the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
“We’re really excited to be working with Duke University Press—they were our first choice of publishers because Duke publishes so many other exciting interdisciplinary journals that we hope to emulate, like the feminist journal ‘differences,’ the cultural studies journals Social Text and South Atlantic Quarterly, the queer theory journal GLQ, and the film studies journal Camera Obscura,” Stryker wrote in an email Wednesday. “Paisley and I were thrilled that Duke saw the same potential in our project that we did.”
This is the first nonmedical journal dedicated to transgender studies, said Jocelyn Dawson, assistant manager of journals marketing at Duke University Press.
“TSQ will be instrumental in developing this growing and vibrant field and will advance the editorial mission of changing the way the world thinks about transgender issues,” Duke University Press said in a press release.
Dawson said that Duke University Press already has a large dedication to gender studies journals.
“The publication of the Transgender Studies Quarterly will do an incredible amount to increase the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people within the Academy,” said senior Jacob Tobia, former president of Blue Devils United. “Personally, I couldn’t be more proud that Duke is playing such an integral role in its publication.”
The press release said that TSQ will explore the diversity of gender, sex, sexuality, embodiment and identity. The journal will focus on publishing interdisciplinary work from fields including cultural studies, political economy, art, health and sexuality studies.
A total of five issues are slated to be printed, each highlighting a different aspect of the transgender community. Topics of the first issues will include the cultural production of trans communities, transgender population studies, transgender biopolitics and problems of translating gender concepts and practices across linguistic communities.
The journal is being financed through fundraising from the Kickstarter Campaign, which allows anyone to donate electronically. In order to publish the journal, a total of $20,000 needs to be raised by June 13. A total of $15,242 has been pledged by 239 backers since May 14.
“Transgender Studies has far-reaching implications across many academic disciplines, including not only gender and women’s studies, sexuality studies and LGBT Studies, but also social sciences, health, art, cultural studies and many other broadly defined fields,” Stryker wrote on the fundraising page. “The development of transgender studies also makes a politically significant intervention into the lives of trans community members with tremendous unmet needs, by changing what and how we know about transgender issues.”
The financing page noted that Stryker and Currah were inspired to start the journal in 2008, when they were invited to co-edit an edition of Women’s Studies Quarterly that focused on special transgender studies.
They received more than 200 submissions for publication, but they were only able to publish 12 of them.
The two professors saw a need for a venue where the transgender community can publish its concerns.
“Five years later, there is still no place to accommodate the kind of conversation we want to foster on transgender issues,” the Kickstarter page reads.
Stryker wrote that they chose to collaborate with Duke University Press because of its well-respected reputation.
“We are determined to produce a journal that demands to be taken seriously—Duke gives transgender studies a lot of credibility,” she wrote on the website.
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