The special issue Monstrous Genealogies: Reclaiming Queer Lives and Embodiments (e-cadernos CES, 41 | 2024) stems from debates started at the III Monster’s Summer School, organised by projects TRACE, REMEMBER and TRIALOGUES on Sept. 18-22, 2023, at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra.
This issue features diverse contributions from participants, invited speakers at the Summer School, and respondents to an open call. This open access issue explores the complex interplay between monstrosity and academic critique, reclaiming the monster – not as a mere rhetorical figure, but as a lens to confront power and exclusion.
The issue opens with a collective piece by Summer School participants Moniq Muyargas, Lara Bochmann, Bart Bloem Herraiz, and Lorena González-Ruiz exploring monstrosity as a research methodology. Subsequent articles examine themes of exclusion, power, and historical marginalisation. Eduarda Ferreira critiques rigid identity politics and TERF discourses, while Daniela Ferrández-Pérez analyses the criminalisation of sexual dissidence in Iberian dictatorships. Bart Bloem Herraiz explores “trans-ecologies,” Lorena González Ruiz bridges trans* activism and scholarship, and Yvonne Wechuli explores emotional othering in disability studies. Other contributions include Moniq Muyargas‘ queering of research methodologies in Filipino LGBTQ+ ageing studies, Vera Pereira, João Manuel de Oliveira, and Teresa Joaquim’s analysis of intersex life histories, and Antônio João’s tracing of medical and legal narratives of homosexuality in Portugal. Bruno Latini Pfeil critiques colonial constructions of monstrous bodies, while Gaia Giuliani reflects on Western imaginaries of migration, disasters, and terrorism within colonial and capitalist frameworks. The issue concludes with a poetic reflection on disability by Verónica Sousa and two book reviews of key works in feminist and trans studies by Daniel Alexandre dos Santos Morais and Joana Matias.
By adopting a queer lens, Monstrous Genealogies reclaims monstrosity as a means to disrupt established power hierarchies and open new avenues for critical inquiry. It challenges traditional academic boundaries while celebrating the resilience of queer lives, bodies, and histories.
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Reference: Pérez Navarro, Pablo, Ana Cristina Santos, Ana Lúcia Santos, Joana Brilhante, Mara Pieri, and Pedro Fidalgo, eds. 2024. Monstrous Genealogies: Reclaiming Queer Lives and Embodiments. e-cadernos CES 41. https://doi.org/10.4000/12uzy.
