Religion Call for Papers | @relcfp

Seeking chapters drawing on Foucault’s history of sexuality to analyze transgender themes in Indian film, television, and web series. We seek a diverse group of contributors from countries throughout the world. Chapters will be included in The Handbook of Indian Trans Cinema, alongside other chapters applying Foucauldian insights into power, knowledge, and discourse. (See Theme 13 below.) Proposals are due July 1, 2025.

We already have 45 confirmed chapters for The Handbook:

(For the most up-to-date list of confirmed chapters see here.)

Theme 1. Historical Cinema

• Chapter 1. “Cinematic Representation of Eunuchs in Medieval Royal Courts,” Anup Shekhar Chakraborty and Praggnaparamita Biswas 
• Chapter 2. “Transgender Representation during the 1947 Partition in Hindi Cinema,” Nidhi Shrivastava
• Chapter 3. “India’s First Film Heroine, Trans Cultural Traditions, and Films,” Manisha Prakash

Theme 2. Comedy

• Chapter 4. “Comic Disruptions and Gender Play: Cross-Dressing, Laughter, and the Trans Possibility in Indian Cinema,” Darshana Chakrabarty
• Chapter 5. “Between Satire and Selfhood: Trans Narratives in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Taali, and Paatal Lok,” Preeti Sharma
• Chapter 6. “Agency and Cisnormative Laugh: Contextualizing Power, Subversion, and Inclusion in Sadak, Shabnam Mausi, and Pati, Patni aur Panga,” Saba Zahoor

Theme 3. Horror

• Chapter 7. “Monstrous Femininity: Reading the Transgender Specter in Hindi Horror-Thrillers,” Abhiruchi Ranjan
• Chapter 8. “Dressed to Kill: Transgression and Terror in Murder 2,” Akanksha Yadav and Shabham Pathak
• Chapter 9. “Gothic Trans in Indian Cinema,” Ananya Chatterjee and Nisarga Bhattacharjee

Theme 4. Crime Drama

• Chapter 10. “Transgender Narratives, Crime, and Televised Justice: A Critical Study of the Selected Episodes of Savdhaan India,” Rachana Pandey
• Chapter 11. “(Trans)forming Noir: Kukoo’s Paradoxical Role in Sacred Games,” Kulvinder Arora
• Chapter 12. “The Politics of Casting in the Crime Drama Gangubai Kathiawadi,” Shruti Ghosh and B. R. Alamelu

Theme 5. Biopics

• Chapter 13. “Transcending Boundaries: Embodied Agency and Narrative Disruption in the Odia Biopic T,” Debasish Mishra and Swati Shatavisha
• Chapter 14. “Electing the Other: Reimagining the Political Hijra in Shabnam Mausi (2005),” Juhi Singh, Shubham Pathak, and Swasti Mishra
• Chapter 15. “Queering the Narrative: Taali as a Site of Gender Disruption and Activism,” Sourav Das and Jaipal

Theme 6. Ethnographic Field Studies

• Chapter 16. “Transgender Identity and Popular Cultural Representation: A Digital Ethnography of the the Web Series Taali and Its Reception,” Deepika
• Chapter 17. “The Home as a Queer Space in the Lives of Trans Women,” Rincy Daniel and Sreejith Kadaiyakkol

Theme 7. Documentaries

• Chapter 18. “The Indian Documentary Gaze: A Study of Trans Lives in Select Indian Documentaries,” Nazrana Haque and Nasmeem Farhin Akhtar
• Chapter 19. “Feminine Excesses: Camp Performativity in Documentaries as an Exploration of Trans Identity,” Sagnika Chanda
• Chapter 20. “Crafting Exit Scapes: Reimagining Kashmiri Trans Identities in Trans Kashmir,” Saloni Walia and Varsha Singh
• Chapter 21. “Navigating Transphobia: Exit Scapes and Self-Expression in South Indian Transgender Documentaries,” Nibu Thomson and Poorna Pushkala A
• Chapter 22. “Wrong Body, Right Spirit: Visualizing Trans Athleticism in the Indian Sports Documentary I am Bonnie,” Bibhudatta Dash and Shreya Rathour

Theme 8. Myth

• Chapter 23. “Desire on Screen in Bengali Cinema,” Nasmeem F. Akhtar
• Chapter 24. “Desire, Devotion, and Trans Kinship in Bengali Cinema: Nagarkirtan (2019),” Sohini Datta and Himashree Patowary
• Chapter 25. “Wrath and Redemption: Trans Embodiment and Vigilante Justice in Arddhanaari (2016),” Anurag Borah

Theme 9. Gender Performativity

• Chapter 26. “Playing Trans: Gender Performativity and Masquerade in Hindi Cinema,” Gunjan Gupta and Nayana George
• Chapter 27. “Dysphoria, Performativity, and the Politics of Belonging: Love, Intra-Community Exclusion, and Posthumous Solidarity in Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan,” Debapriya Goswami
• Chapter 28. “Reconceptualizing ‘Nari Bhav’: Critiquing the Politics of Androgynous Semiotics, Perverse Mimesis, and Transcorporeal Signification in Kaushik Ganguly’s Arekti Premer Golpo and Raja Sen’s Maya Mridanga,” Amar Chakrabortty

Theme 10. Visibility

• Chapter 29. “Negotiating Marginality: Trans Subjectivity, Queer Kinship, and the Politics of Visibility in Fireflies/Jonaki Porua,” Parvin Sultana
• Chapter 30. “Trans Formations: The Transgender Gaze and Class Privilege in the Indian Web Series Made in Heaven,” Puja Raj

Theme 11. Motherhood

• Chapter 31. “Questioning Normative Motherhood: The Representation of Trans Parenting in Bollywood,” Sushreed Routray and Rashmi Gaur
• Chapter 32. “Maternal Agency and Trans Affirmation in Contemporary Indian Short Films,” Apoorva Uniyal and Monika Gupta

Theme 12. Transmasculinity

• Chapter 33. “Transmasculinity and Malayalam Film: The Twin Effects of Transition and Demonetisation,” M.A. Miller
• Chapter 34. “Unlovable or Unseen? Taboos around Trans Male Identity and Intimacy in the Film Safed,” Akanksha Singh and Rajiv Pratap Singh

Theme 13. Trans Foucault

• Chapter 35. “The Trans Body in the Public Gaze: Michel Foucault’s Discourse Theory and Transgender Subjectivity in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui,” Vidya Hariharan
• Chapter 36. “Gender, Space, and Survival: Daayraa and the Evolution of Trans Narratives in Indian Cinema,” Somsuvra Midya

Theme 14. Time and Space

• Chapter 37. “Mapping Trans Temporalities in Rajasthan’s Cinematic Deserts,” Sohini Datta and Himashree Patowary
• Chapter 38. “Safety as a Genre: Chronotopes of Trans Mobility in Indian Cinema,” Prerna Subramanian

Theme 15. Bollywood

• Chapter 39. “Bobby Darling’s Self-Representation: Navigating between Stereotype and Inclusivity in Bollywood,” Samrat Sharma and Arpita Sarker
• Chapter 40. “Reimagining Trans Bodies in Bollywood Movies in the 21st Century,” Ali Saha

Theme 16. Regional Cinemas

• Chapter 41. “Reframing Transness: Shame, Transgression, and Acceptance in Malayalam Trans Cinema,” Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh
• Chapter 42. “Trans Bodies in Malayalam Cinema: Class, Caste, and the Politics of Representation,” Anjitha Gopi
• Chapter 43. “Trans-Feminist and Decolonial Interventions in Tamil Cinema,” Tanupriya
• Chapter 44. “Exploring Parallel Lives and Silenced Truths in Bengali Cinema: Transgender Identity and Sexual Politics in Samantaral (2017),” Souradip Bhattacharyya
• Chapter 45. “Changing the Portrayal of Transgender Protagonists in Indian Cinema,” Chandrakant Kamble

Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to 

https://bit.ly/IndianTransCinema 

no later than July 1, 2025.  

Each chapter will provide extensive references to both trans theory and film theory. Abstracts for proposed chapters should include several references to both trans theory and film theory, with an explanation for how these references will support your argument. Your list of references does not count toward the 300 word limit for abstracts.

Proposals that do not integrate references to film theory and trans theory in a compelling manner will be rejected.

Proposals should focus on films with a specifically trans focus, not merely a broadly LGBTQ focus.

If your chapter will have more than one author, please send a 200-word biography for each author. Proposals submitted by email will not be accepted. Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as Word documents, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your biography file so we can contact you with our decision about your proposal.

Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by July 20, 2025. Partial first drafts are due by September 1, 2025; solid first drafts of full chapters are due by December 1, 2025, and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due March 1, 2026. All chapters must include at least one author with a PhD. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered. 

We are seeking chapters that cover the full breadth of India’s trans films, so we are not accepting proposals that explore films already examined by confirmed chapters. Please do NOT propose chapters on any of the following films, which are already covered in the handbook:

(For the most up-to-date list of films covered by confirmed chapters, see here.)

• Aalorukkam
• Abnormal
• Admitted
• Antharam
• Arddhanaari
• Ardh
• Ardhanaari
• Arekti Premer Golpo
• Avalilekkulla Dhooram
• Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3
• Chachi 420
• Chalte Chalte
• Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
• Chanthupottu
• Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish
• Daayraa
• Darmiyaan
• Dream Girl
• Dream Girl 2
• Fireflies (Jonaki Porua)
• Gender Identity
• Haddi
• I am Bonnie
• I am Joyita
• India’s Biggest Transgender Festival
• Iratta Jeevitham
• Jeevan Smriti
• Jodhaa-Akbar
• Jogwa
• Kaalakaandi
• Kanchana
• Khejdi
• Laxmii
• Made in Heaven
• Maine Dil Tajhko Diya
• Maya Mridanga
• Murder 2
• Naanu Avanalla…Avalu
• Nagarkirtan
• Nilayile Vellaramkallukal
• Njan Marykutty
• Paatal Lok
• Paava Kadhaigal
• Padmavat
• Page 3
• Pati, Patni aur Panga
• Performing the Goddess
• Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost
• Rajni
• Sacred Games
• Sadak
• Safed
• Samantaral
• Sangharsh
• Savdhaan India
• Shabnam Mausi
• Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
• Super Deluxe
• T
• Taali
• Tamanna
• That’s My Boy
• Trans Kashmir
• Transcender
• Udalazham
• Unwoman

Proposals for chapters on any of the above films will be rejected.

(For the most up-to-date list of films covered by confirmed chapters, see here.)

You are welcome to submit more than one abstract. If you submit multiple abstracts for different chapters, please add a note at the top of each abstract to indicate whether you wish to be considered for writing only a single chapter, or whether you wish to be considered for writing more than one chapter.

Contact Information

The first editor’s previous books include Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences(2022), Indian Feminist Ecocriticism (2022), The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature (2024), and Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature (2021).

Contact Email: [email protected]