Call for Papers – Gender & Climate Justice

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Call for Papers

Special Issue – Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice

Gender & Climate Justice

Deadline: 1 July 2024

Co-Editors: Lori Lee Oates, Memorial University, and Sritama Chatterjee, University of Pittsburgh

Call for Submissions - Gender & Climate Justice
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In late 2019, 11,000 scientists from across the world declared a climate emergency in Bioscience journal. They identified six policy initiatives to address the climate emergency, including the need to “make family planning available to all people, remove barriers to their access and achieve full gender equity, including primary and secondary education as a global norm, for all, especially girls and young women” (Ripple et al. 2020). On International Women’s Day in 2022, the United Nations stated that: “Across the world, women depend more on, yet have less access to, natural resources. In many regions, women bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel.” According to the Government of Canada’s own climate plan, Canada is heating at twice the global average and three times as fast in Canada’s North. As a result, Indigenous women are disproportionately impacted by climate change (Native Women’s Association of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada). Ourkiya (2022) has made the point through the Network in Canadian History & Environment that: “Climate justice depends on liberation of queer bodies and minoritized groups globally.”

Climate change—and climate change denial—are gendered phenomena (Benegal and Holman 2021). Further, the expanding field of climate justice recognizes that the global south, Indigenous communities, and low-income areas are also disproportionately impacted by climate crises. Humanities scholars now accept that climate change is an outcome of extractive colonial capitalism, which scholars have long agreed is aligned with patriarchy and racial oppression. In her ground-breaking article in Political Geography, Farhana Sultana asks that we recognize “the unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality” (Sultana 2022).

As such, this special issue of Atlantis Journal takes an intersectional approach, recognizing that women, persons of colour, Indigenous, queer and trans persons, and other vulnerable groups are often in grave danger from the increasing climate crisis. We invite work that explores a range of topics, including but not limited to:

• What should climate justice look like for women, trans people, and non-binary people?
• What is the role of masculinity in the climate crisis?
• What is ecofeminism in the contemporary world and what is its role in climate justice? How does ecofeminism relate to queer justice for the environment?
• What do queer and trans ecologies look like at present? How is this limiting for climate justice? What should they look like?
• What does disaster planning for the elderly and disabled look like? What should it look like to achieve true climate justice?
• How do historical colonial patterns of gender and racial inequality persist into the present and what does this mean for the climate crisis? Where are the intersections between race and gender?
• What are the links between climate justice movements and reproductive freedom activists? What should they be?
• What is petroleum patriarchy and where does it exist? How can it be addressed? Will a transition off fossil fuels be sufficient to address it?
• What are the limits of the politics of “the Anthropocene” for climate justice?
• How are gender and climate justice reflected in literature and arts?
• What kind of pedagogies are necessary to address gender and climate justice?

This call invites individuals to submit research articles (up to 7,000 words), literary writing (up to 3,000 words), and book reviews (up to 1,000 words). See submission guidelines for details. The editors are particularly interested in hearing from scholars and writers from the global south, Indigenous communities, queer and trans scholars, and those who engage with feminist or environmental activism. We envision this special issue as a forum both for acknowledging the urgency of the situation and presenting solutions from voices that are often excluded from the conversation.

Submission Process for “Gender and Climate Justice”

The deadline for submitting full papers is May 1, 2024. Papers must adhere to Atlantis’ submission guidelines. All submissions must be made through Atlantis’ OJS platform. Please indicate in your cover letter that your submission is for the “Gender and Climate Justice” issue. For questions about this Call for Submissions or the submission process, please contact Katherine Barrett, Managing Editor: atlantis.journal [at] msvu.ca

Works Cited

Bengal, Salil, and Mirya R. Holman. 2021. “Understanding the importance of sexism in shaping climate denialism and policy opposition.” Climate Change 167:48

Native Women’s Association of Canada. Climate Change: Policy Brief. https://nwac.ca/assets-knowledge-centre/FNIHB_Climate_change_policy-brief.pdf. Last accessed September 25, 2023.

Ourkiya, A. 2022. “Ecofeminism and Postgenderism’s Liberatory Effects: On Bodily Autonomy, Gender, and Environmental Justice.” Network in Canadian History & Environment, June 28, found at

Ourkiya, A. 2022. “Ecofeminism and Postgenderism’s Liberatory Effects: On Bodily Autonomy, Gender, and Environmental Justice.” Network in Canadian History & Environment, June 28, found at https://niche-canada.org/2022/06/28/postgenderism-and-ecofeminism/. Last accessed November 15, 2023.

Ripple, William J., et al. 2020. “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency.” BioScience 70(1): 8-12.
Sultana, Farhana. 2022. “The Unbearable Heaviness of Climate Coloniality.” Political Geography 99.

United Nations Women. 2022. “Explainer: How gender inequality and climate change are interconnected.” www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/explainer/2022/02/explainer-how-gender-inequality-and-climate-change-are-interconnected. Last accessed October 11, 2023.

Feature Image: “Climate Justice for Gender Justice” by John Englart (Takver) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Lori Lee Oates

Teaching Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Lori Lee is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her Ph.D. is in global and imperial history from the University of Exeter, focusing on the global movement of ideas in the nineteenth century. Lori Lee's current research interests include the resource curse, and women and climate justice. At present, Lori Lee is working on her first monograph for SUNY Press and a special issue on Gender and Climate Justice for Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Social Justice & Culture. She has been a contributor to the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Observer, and The Hill Times. Lori Lee has advised national environmental groups on the political economy of climate change and a just transition off fossil fuels.

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