Call for Submissions – Succession IV: Queering the Environment – “Queer Joy”

Scroll this

Succession IV: Queering the Environment – “Queer Joy”

A NiCHE Series

Proposal Deadline: March 28, 2026

Series Publication: June 2026

Series Editors: Jessica DeWitt, Tina Adcock, and Sarah York-Bertram

In ecology, succession is a series of progressive changes made in a community over time. These changes often lead to higher diversity in an environment.

In June 2020, we published Succession: Queering the Environment, a series that explored the changes that occur within environmental history and related environmental studies when queer people, non-humans, systems, and ideas are centred. In June 2022, we published Succession II, which explored unruliness, care, and pleasure. In Summer 2024, Succession III explored themes of rebellion. This year, we return to expressions of positive affect, first explored in Succession II, but with a new approach.

Join us for the fourth installment of this now biennial series, Succession IV – Queer Joy.

When I (DeWitt) published the first Succession in June 2020, the burgeoning energy and excitement around queer environmental scholarship was palpable. As the series has matured, so, too, has the field of queer ecology and its interdisciplinary relationship with the environmental humanities. But as we prepare for Succession IV, we must acknowledge that there is now a significant backlash against this rise in queer studies, theory, and general visibility. From scholars thinking twice about presenting their queer scholarship publicly to governmental attacks on the rights of transgender youth in Canada and the United States to continued harassment and violence faced by LGBTQIA2S+ individuals globally, hope for the continued advancement of queer rights can be difficult to muster right now.

This is where the importance of celebrating queer joy comes into play. Burkholder et al. (2025) describe queer joy as “an orientation toward theorizing and resisting taken-for-granted normativity.” Queer joy thus serves as a framework for understanding ways that queer people resist hegemonic social and cultural systems. We further wish to build off of scholarship and lived knowledge that envisions queer joy as an affective or emotional way of knowing, specifically a way of knowing and being in relation with the environment and more-than-human beings.

For this series, we invite submissions that take up ideas of queer joy.

We seek proposals for Succession IV that:

  • Respond to the concept of joy
  • Feature LGBTQIA2S+ folks interacting with and thinking about the environment and more-than-human animals in the past and present
  • Explore connections between emotional and queer ecologies 
  • Reimagine environmental topics using queer theory or a related queer lens
  • Are written in English or French.

We anticipate that Succession IV will feature:

  • Environmental history
  • Environmental humanities
  • Environmental art
  • Queer ecology
  • Related disciplines

Succession IV submissions can take the form of:

  • Blog posts (approx. 800–1200 words)
  • Creative fiction or non-fiction
  • Poetry
  • Art
  • Photo essays
  • Audio and visual projects
  • Other forms of expression and writing

Please submit a 100–300 word proposal describing your proposed submission, how it incorporates or relates to queer joy, and its contribution to the field of environmental history/studies more broadly, as well as a short bio using the Google Form below by March 28, 2026.

Succession IV Proposal Form

Applicants will receive an update regarding the status of their submission by April 11, 2026. Please email Jessica DeWitt, jessicamariedewitt [at] gmail.com, with any questions or other inquiries.

NiCHE offers $100 CAD honoraria to contributors without adequate or consistent access to institutional support. Learn more about our honoraria policy here.

Feature Image: “Pilsen Pride and Joy” by Atelier Teee is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
The following two tabs change content below.
My Instagram profile

Jessica DeWitt

NiCHE Editor-in-Chief, Social Media Editor at Jessica M. DeWitt: Editing and Consulting
is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, consultant, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is the Managing Editor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and Associate Editor for Environmental Humanities. Closer to home, she is the President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six, and a Conservation Advisory Committee member for the Meewasin Valley Authority. She focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access. You can find out more about her and her freelance services at jessicamdewitt.com.

NiCHE encourages comments and constructive discussion of our articles. We reserve the right to delete comments that fail to meet our guidelines including comments under aliases, or that contain spam, harassment, or attacks on an individual.