[Commlist] CFP - Siren! Magazine Second Issue "Disciplined Bodies, Transgressive Bodies, Transformed Bodies"

Call for Papers – Siren! Magazine Second Issue: Disciplined Bodies, 
Transgressive Bodies, Transformed Bodies

Bodies are shaped by the worlds we inhabit, the stories we tell about 
them, and the institutions through which we learn what a body is, what 
it should look like, how it should behave, and what it is permitted to 
become. Yet bodies are often treated as merely biological facts: fixed, 
self-evident, and prior to politics. This distinction matters because 
once something is understood as natural, the expectations attached to it 
can begin to appear inevitable.

For this issue, we invite work on disciplined, transgressive, and 
transformed bodies. We are interested in work that reflects on how 
bodily norms are produced and enforced, what happens when bodies exceed 
or destabilize those norms, and how bodies are remade through political, 
social, technological, medical, aesthetic, and cultural processes.

The question, then, is not only who tells bodies what to do, but how we 
come to understand what bodies are for in the first place and how we may 
challenge the constraints imposed over them. How do medicine, law, 
media, family, religion, workplaces, markets, states, and digital 
platforms make particular kinds of bodies appear normal, desirable, 
healthy, productive, legible, or valuable? What happens when a body does 
not fit the meaning assigned to it; when it refuses, cannot comply, 
fails to conform, or becomes something else? We are especially 
interested in moments when bodily categories begin to break down, when 
the meanings attached to bodies no longer hold, or become further 
reinforced and are resisted, and when bodies become sites of 
contradiction, refusal, negotiation, and possibility.

KEY TERMS

For the purposes of this issue, we understand the three terms broadly 
and provisionally:

1. Disciplined bodies are shaped by the norms, institutions, and 
expectations that surround them. They may be expected to reproduce, 
perform gender recognizably, be deemed healthy and desirable, remain 
productive and self-optimizing, regulate themselves, and stay 
intelligible to others. We welcome work on how these norms are produced, 
enforced, negotiated, and unevenly distributed.

2. Transgressive bodies make those expectations difficult to sustain. 
Transgression need not be intentional: a body may refuse, fail, exceed, 
disrupt, or simply be unable to comply. Nor are particular bodies 
inherently transgressive; they are often rendered so by institutions and 
cultural frameworks that mark some forms of embodiment as abnormal, 
excessive, threatening, or unintelligible.

3. Transformed bodies ask what happens when embodiments become a site of 
remaking. Bodies may be altered through medicine, technology, 
disability, transition, reproduction, labor, aging, artistic practice, 
environmental exposure, or political violence. Transformation may be 
desired or imposed, liberatory, or coercive. We are interested in what 
bodies become, what histories they carry, what forms of power shape 
them, and what futures they make imaginable.

We welcome submissions that interpret one of these categories, bring two 
or more into conversation, question the distinctions between them, or 
propose other ways of thinking about bodily discipline, transgression, 
and transformation. Proposals should identify the term that most 
strongly connects to the submission while noting any significant 
intersections with the others.

POSSIBLE TOPICS

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Bodily autonomy and reproductive rights
• Disability and debility
• Gender and sexuality
• Race and racialization
• Beauty and aesthetic labor
• Health, illness, and wellness
• Medicine and biomedical technologies
• Aging
• Death
• War and militarization
• Sport and physical performance
• Embodiment and mediation (digital or otherwise)
• Surveillance
• Cyborg subjectivities
• Body modification
• Bodily aesthetics
• Migration and borders
• Carcerality
• Labor and productivity
• Environmental harm
• Colonialism and its afterlives
• Speculative or imagined forms of embodiment

WHO CAN SUBMIT

We welcome work from scholars, students, artists, activists, independent 
researchers, and public intellectuals working in communication, media 
studies, feminist studies, cultural studies, disability studies, queer 
and trans studies, critical race studies, the humanities, and related 
fields.

Submissions are open to contributors at all career stages, but we 
particularly encourage work from early-career scholars and those whose 
work may sit outside conventional academic publishing structures.

FORMATS

Submissions may be written, visual, audiovisual, audio, or hybrid. We 
welcome experimental forms alongside conventional scholarly approaches. 
Across formats, submissions should engage the issue’s broader 
commitments to critical feminist inquiry, transnational solidarity, 
feminist world-making, and transformative social change.

TIMELINE

For full consideration, abstracts are due by October 31, 2026, with 
decisions made by December 10th. Completed submissions will be due by 
February 10th, 2027, with a projected publication date in September 2027.

GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL TYPES

• Paper: Please send the title and a 250-word abstract outlining the 
argument for a full paper featuring an original contribution. Full 
papers are long-form (3000–5000 words) analytical essays that connect to 
the current topic of the issue. Please use the APA citation system for 
references.

• Escalator Paper: Please submit the title and a 150-word abstract for a 
short analytical piece (500–2000 words). Research escalator papers are 
works-in-progress on novel ideas related to the issue theme; they will 
be published as submitted and paired with an expert mentor to develop 
into a full analytical or empirical work. Please use the APA citation 
system for references.

• Multimedia and Hybrid Submissions: Please submit the title and a 
200–250-word description explaining how your piece relates to the 
current issue’s theme. For multimedia works, explain how text and other 
elements interact. Finished pieces should include a link to a sample. 
For works in progress, add a brief (up to 100 words) outline of the 
concept, your process, and the timeline for completion. Experimental 
submissions are encouraged.

• Abstract due: October 31, 2026
• Acceptances: December 10, 2026
• Final submission: February 10, 2027
• Peer-review process and mentorships: February – June 2027
• Expected publication date: early September 2027

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

All proposals should be sent as a .docx or .pdf document, and include a 
brief bio (up to 150 words) introducing yourself and your background.

Please submit proposals to (asc-sirenmagazine /at/ asc.upenn.edu), using the 
subject line “Siren Magazine – Bodies.”

There are no article processing charges (APCs) for contributors to 
Siren! Magazine.

Direct any questions regarding the call or submission process to the 
same address.

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