Unheard Voices of HIV/AIDS: Call for Researchers from the Dutch Journal for Gender Studies

The Dutch Journal for Gender Studies is looking for scholars and researchers in the field of Gender and Sexuality Studies to contribute to a special issue about “intersectional narratives of HIV/Aids in literature and media”. This time, the focus is on a theme that still carries deep emotional, political, and cultural weight. They are seeking intersectional narratives of HIV and AIDS as represented in literature and media.

For many in the Global South, this call is more than an academic invitation. It is a doorway to stories that have remained in the shadows for far too long. HIV and AIDS have shaped generations, yet the voices that tell these stories often come from the West. This leaves a gap. It leaves out communities that lived through the epidemic with limited resources, unequal access to care, and crushing social stigma. It leaves out women, migrants, queer people outside Euro-American circles, sex workers, and those who must fight multiple layers of marginalisation at once.

In the words of the circular ‘’For this issue of the Dutch Journal for Gender Studies, we are looking to broaden the research on HIV/AIDS narratives by bringing together new scholarship that looks at living with HIV/AIDS from an intersectional vantage point and that situates these narratives into national contexts beyond the United States and the United Kingdom. We aim to make visible the types of narratives that have been overlooked or that remain untold because of the dominance of Anglo-American storytelling in HIV/AIDS media. These can include, but are not limited to: literature, film, (online) games, video essays, museum exhibitions, dance or theatrical performances, performance art, visual arts, and art installations.’’

The opportunity welcomes two types of submissions: articles and essays. Both may take a scholarly or nontraditional form, and be theoretical, commentary, empirical, poetic and/or artistic. All methodologies are welcome. Abstracts (and manuscripts) can be written in English or Dutch. Note that the initial acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication, as the manuscripts will undergo a double-blinded review process.  All accepted contributions will be published with full open access.

Full-length articles word limit: 6500 words
Essay word limit: 3000-3500 words (both incl. bibliography).
Abstract  for research papers: 500 Words
Abstract  for essays: 200 words
Deadline: November 21, 2025

Important dates to remember

The applicants are required to email their abstract proposal as a Word file to the following   guest editors

• Jesse van Amelsvoort: jdvanamelsvoort@uva.nl
• Looi van Kessel: l.van.kessel@hum.leidenuniv.nl
• Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies is published by Amsterdam University Press: Tijdschrift voor Gender Studies | Amsterdam University Press (aup.nl).

Full Author guidelines for instructions and requirements of all published formats: https://www.aup-online.com/upload/IfA/TVGEND_IfA_2023.pdf

Share-Net Bangladesh calls on researchers to utilise this wonderful opportunity. Knowledge-sharing is not just about producing research. It is about making space for truths that rarely enter mainstream conversations. When journals in the Global North intentionally look beyond their borders, they help rewrite the imbalance in who gets to record history and who gets to interpret it. They push back against the quiet erasure that happens when certain voices are never heard.