The Contested Global Politics of Pleasure and Danger: Sexuality, Gender, Health and Human Rights

Global Public Health invites the submission of full-length articles for a special journal issue on The Contested Global Politics of Pleasure and Danger: Sexuality, Gender, Health and Human Rights.

As the field of global health has evolved in the 21st century, issues related to sexuality, gender, health and human rights have become increasing visible, highly contested, and when comparing across global regions even contradictory. What have increasingly been described as ‘global sex wars’ (Corrêa, Petchesky, and Parker 2008) have been fought out both on local battlefields and in international arenas. This landscape is marked by a diversity of issues, including but not limited to, abortion and reproductive health and rights, HIV and AIDS-related policies and programs, LGBT health and rights, human trafficking and sex worker rights movements, hate crimes and gender-based violence, and even the concept (and so-called ‘ideology’) of gender that have all taken shape as the sites for political contests, social mobilization, reaction and resistance, activism and advocacy. The recent return of religious fervor and political extremism on a global scale has again drawn attention sexuality and gender as key political battlegrounds at the intersection of the fields of global health and human rights. Paradoxically, both pleasure and danger have become central topics for global health research, policy and practice, and merit critical analysis to better understand this seemingly contradictory connection. This Special Issue of Global Public Health will provide an opportunity to explore both the conceptual and empirical dimensions of these issues.

We ask that submissions explore the dynamics between pleasure and danger as related to global public health and human rights broadly or address them through focused studies on topics including, but not limited to:

1. Studies of the deployment of human rights approaches in relation to sexuality, gender and health
2. Empirical studies that explore the role of solidarity, love, care and emotion in shaping social movements, policies and programs related to sexuality, gender, health and human rights
3. Critical analytical and historic framing of current struggles for sexual and reproductive health rights
4. Empirical studies of social movement and other resistance organizing (from both progressive and conservative perspectives) around issues related to sexuality, gender, health and rights
5. Analyses of the ways in which criminalization and criminal justice systems have been deployed in relation to issues as diverse as HIV transmission, homophobia, transphobia, sex work and trafficking and reproduction
6. Examinations of sexuality and gender in relation to both forced and voluntary migration and the health of immigrants, refugees and displaced persons
7. Assessments of the ways in which forms of interpersonal and community-level dangers, such as, violence, hate crimes, stigma, prejudice and discrimination impact global public health