Stream Organisers: Adriaan van Klinken A.VanKlinken@leeds.ac.uk; and Megan Robertson M.A.Robertson@leeds.ac.uk
This stream invites papers that critically engage with the role of queer narratives in shaping African worlds. This stream foregrounds storytelling, through life histories, literature, visual and performing arts, and other creative and intellectual forms, as a vital mode of meaning-making, resistance, and world building. In contexts where queer and trans lives are often marginalised or erased by dominant socio-political and religio-cultural discourses, narrative becomes a powerful tool for reimagining identity, community, and futurity.
We are interested in how queer and trans narratives challenge dominant framings of Africanness and opens space for plural, liberatory visions of African worlds, both on the continent and its diaspora. These stories do not simply reflect lived realities; they actively construct new possibilities for being and belonging. The stream invites interdisciplinary approaches that engage with (but are not limited to):
· Autobiographical and oral histories
· Narrative in art and performance
· Visual and digital storytelling
· Archival narratives
· Literary narratives
· Spirituality and faith in queer narratives
· Methodological and ethical questions in narrative research
Contributions may draw from anthropology, literature, history, media studies, religious studies, sociology, or the arts. We especially encourage submissions that reflect on the politics of representation and the transformative potential of narrative in African contexts.
