Call for Papers: Decolonising Knowledge around Gender and Sexuality

📣 Call for Papers
Decolonising Knowledge around Gender and Sexuality

The Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration (CTDC), in collaboration with University College London and Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research, invites submissions for its third annual conference on:
Decolonising Knowledge around Gender and Sexuality

This conference seeks to critically examine how knowledge around gender and sexuality is produced, circulated, and legitimised—particularly in relation to the Global South. We understand that research is never neutral: it reflects power dynamics, political choices, and epistemological biases. This event is a space to explore how knowledge can become a praxis of transformation rather than reproduction of colonial hierarchies.

🧭 Thematic Areas
We invite abstracts addressing one or more of the following themes:

1. Positionality and Intersectionality
   • How do identity, privilege, and belonging shape the knowledge we produce?
   • Can gender and sexuality research move toward intersectional, decolonial reflexivity?
2. Decolonising Methods and Methodologies
   • How can dominant methodologies be reimagined?
   • What research tools are rooted in local, non-Western frameworks?
3. Uses and Abuses of Indigenous Knowledge
   • Who defines what counts as “indigenous” knowledge?
   • How do academic and activist spaces appropriate or distort it?
4. Language and Terminology
   • What is lost—or imposed—when local expressions are translated into universalist terms?
   • Can native languages serve as tools of resistance in gender discourse?
5. Academic Institutions and Epistemic Hierarchies
   • How do Global North institutions shape narratives about the Global South?
   • What role do publishing systems, curricula, and funding models play?
6. Research Ethics and Co-Production
   • What does truly ethical, co-productive research look like?
   • Are communities authors of their stories—or subjects of someone else's lens?

📌 Submission Guidelines
Deadline: July 30, 2018
Abstract length: Up to 350 words
Languages accepted: Arabic, English, or French

Include:
• A short bio (up to 150 words)
• Thematic area(s) addressed by your paper

📧 Send submissions to: info@ctdc.org

We encourage submissions from:
• Activists and community organisers
• Independent researchers and practitioners
• Civil society organisations
• Scholars and academics, especially from the Global South

📚 Post-Conference Publication
Selected papers will be featured in a special issue of Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research.

💰 Funding Support
Subject to availability, limited travel support may be offered to participants.
Please indicate your interest when submitting or reach out to us via email.

“To decolonise is not to reject knowledge, but to reclaim it. To make it accountable, relational, and liberatory.” — CTDC