We, AG Queer STS, an independent volunteer working collective, are publishing the open-access, online journal Queer-Feminist STS Forum since 2016. As a collective, we are constantly learning with and from our contributors, reviewers, and readers and wider communities and remain committed to improving the Forum as a space for queer-feminist perspectives from academia, arts, activism and diverse knowledges. After nearly a decade of publishing, we recognize that editorial work must remain reflective and responsive. For this reason, we refer our contributors, reviewers and editorial teams to ethical guidelines. These guidelines invite all participants in the publication process to carefully consider ethical dimensions of their work, especially when it comes to vulnerable participants in research and the potential risk of re-traumatisation.
Editors: Susanne Kink-Hampersberger, Lisa Scheer & Aleksandra Wierzbicka
As the Queer STS Working Group, we outline our understanding of queer Science, Technology, and Society Studies in our manifesto. Central to us is not only a reflective stance as researchers but also a critical examination of social reality, in which not all people have the same rights, opportunities, and possibilities for participation, as well as access to resources. We are motivated to shed light on hidden norms and values, power structures, and mechanisms of exclusion, and to mitigate their impact. We aim to ensure that everyone has barrier-free access to shaping science and technology. The Queer STS Forum is one of our tools to achieve these goals. It enables us to make individuals and collectives visible – both those who take political stances and those who are politically active – beyond science and technology. This is evident in several issues from the past decade, such as those on queer-feminist solidarity, queer-feminist inclusion, and queer interventions.
This makes it clear that both we as a working group and our Forum are part of queer-feminist politics. Feminist politics is often understood as policy, yet it also encompasses activism, education, and research (Drüeke & Klaus, 2025; Wroblewski & Schmidt, 2024; Hofbauer & Wroblewski, 2021). To address all these levels or spheres of politics, we deliberately use the plural form. In Queer STS Forum 11/2026, together with guest editor Aleksandra Wierzbicka, we set out to explore the facets of queer-feminist politics and ask: What successes in feminist politics can we celebrate, and what challenges still lie ahead? How can (queer) feminist political education be structured in schools and universities? What barriers and challenges must be overcome? How political are students and how political do they see themselves in the mid-2020s? Where do students perceive opportunities in and constraints on being politically active?
We invite all kinds of contributions from research papers to creative formats using audio, video, images, poetry, memes, drawings, fictional text etc. for a multi-media open access publication opportunity in our Queer-Feminist Science and Technology Studies Forum #11/2026.
Please send abstracts describing your idea in 1000 to 2500 signs (blanks included) until May 17th to .
Time schedule for issue #11 in 2026:
Call for contributions: April 30st to May 17th 2026
Deadline for submitting abstracts: May 17th
Feedback on your abstracts: May 27th
Submission of first full version of contributions: July 15th
Review feedback: August 31st
Submission final version of contribution: October 1st
Planned date of publication: December 2026
Call: Queer STS Forum #11: Queer_feministische Politiken
Herausgeberinnen: Susanne Kink-Hampersberger, Lisa Scheer & Aleksandra Wierzbicka
Als Arbeitsgruppe Queer STS beschreiben wir in unserem Manifest unser Verständnis von queeren Science, Technology and Society Studies. Zentral ist dabei neben einer reflektierenden Haltung als Forschende die kritische Betrachtung gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit, in der nicht allen Menschen die gleichen Rechte, Möglichkeiten, Partizipationschancen und Ressourcenzugänge haben. Wir streben danach, die zum Teil verdeckten Normen und Werte, Machtverteilungen und Ausgrenzungsmechanismen zu entlarven, zu beleuchten und in ihrer Wirkung zu schwächen. Barrierefreier Zugang zur Mitgestaltung von Wissenschaft und Technologie soll für alle Menschen ermöglicht werden. Das Queer STS Forum ist eines unserer Vehikel, um diese Ziele zu erreichen. Es ermöglicht uns, sich politisch positionierende wie auch politisch aktive Individuen und Kollektive, deren Wirkkreise über Wissenschaft und Technologie hinausgehen, sichtbar zu machen. Das machen einige Ausgaben der letzten zehn Jahre z. B. zu queer-feministischen Solidaritäten, queer-feministischer Inklusion und queeren Interventionen deutlich.
Damit wird deutlich, dass sowohl wir als AG als auch unser Forum Teil queer-feministischer Politiken ist – Gleichstellungspolitiken, um genau zu sein. Gleichstellungspolitik wird oft nur mit Gesetzen, Erlässen und Regierungsarbeit gleichgesetzt, doch sie umfasst ebenso Aktivismus, Bildung und Forschung. Um alle diese Ebenen oder Aktionsfelder politischen Handelns zu adressieren, sprechen wir bewusst von Politiken im Plural. Im Queer STS Forum 11/2026 machen wir uns gemeinsam mit Gast-Herausgeberin Aleksandra Wierzbicka auf die Suche nach Facetten queer-feministischer Gleichstellungspolitiken und fragen:
Welche gleichstellungspolitischen Erfolge lassen sich feiern, welche Spannungsfelder liegen noch vor uns? Wie lässt sich (queer-)feministische politische Bildung an Schule und Hochschule ausgestalten? Welche Grenzen und Herausforderungen sind zu bewältigen? Wie politisch sind und sehen sich Studierende Mitte der 2020er-Jahre? Wo nehmen Studierende (gleichstellungs)politische Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten und Handlungseinschränkungen wahr?
Wir laden wie üblich ein zu allen erdenklichen Beitragsformen – von klassischen wissenschaftlichen Beiträgen bis hin zu kreativen Formaten mit Audio, Video, Bildern, Poesie, Memes, Zeichnungen, fiktionalen Texten etc. – in deutscher oder englischer Sprache für ein multi-mediales Open Access Queer STS Forum #11/2026.
Senden Sie uns einen Abstract mit der Darstellung Ihres Vorhabens im Umfang von 1000 bis 2500 Zeichen (inkl. Leerzeichen) bis 17.5.2026 an .
Zeitplan für Issue #11/2026:
Call für Beitragsabstracts: 30. April bis 17. Mai 2026
Deadline für Abstracts: 17. Mai
Feedback auf die Abstracts: bis 27. Mai
Einreichung erste Vollversion des Beitrags: 15. Juli
Feedback von Reviewer*innen: 31. August
Einreichung finale Version des Beitrags: 1. Oktober
Geplante Veröffentlichung des Forums: Dezember 2026
References/Referenzen:
Drüeke, R., Klaus, E. (2025). Feministische Öffentlichkeiten. In: Kortendiek, B., Riegraf, B., Sabisch, K. (eds) Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, vol 65. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-12500-4_109-2
Hofbauer, J., Wroblewski, A. (2021). Anforderungen an eine zeitgemäße Gleichstellungspolitik an der Schnittstelle zwischen Politik, Theorie und Praxis. In: Wroblewski, A., Schmidt, A. (eds) Gleichstellungspolitiken revisted. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35846-4_1
Wroblewski, A., Schmidt, A. (2024). Einleitung – Aktuelle Herausforderungen an Gleichstellungspolitik. In: Wroblewski, A., Schmidt, A. (eds) Gleichstellung in progress. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-44365-8_1
In recent years queer-feminist communities have been established as places of comfort and empowerment. At the same time we have had to witness social and political setbacks when it comes to the rights of women* and LGBTIQA*. We experience and/or observe hostile environments – particularly in the online, more anonymous dimensions of society. Even in greater feminist contexts we are confronted with movements excluding vulnerable groups from their aspirations or even rallying against minorities (such as trans persons).
However, we see, hear about and participate in queer-feminist activities of kindness, love and solidarity in so many different contexts, from bicycle clubs, upcycling and repair shops, community gardens, cold swimming societies, book clubs, nature walks, crochet projects to fermenting experiments or coding collectives.
In this year’s Queer STS Forum, we are entirely open in regard to the thematic context and focus on the importance of queer-feminist solidarities across communities and movements. We look forward to contributions on e.g.
how to stand up together against antifeminist, anti-LGBTIQA* movements and bashing of ‘rainbow topics’ etc.,
how to join forces and overcoming differences,
initiatives in support of each other,
joint activism against hate speech and discrimination (e.g. bodyshaming),
and collect examples of initiative and projects, which aim on kindness, love and solidarity in times of social and political turbulences.
We are interested in a variety of practical, artistical, and academic contributions on queer-feminist solidarities, and so we want to provide two concrete ways of participating in our multi-media open access publication Queer STS Forum #9/2024:
We invite research papers and creative formats using audios, videos, images, texts – to illuminate and reflect ideas, experiences and actions of queer-feminist solidarities. These contributions tell/show stories and share experience, which can inspire and/or offer learning potential.
Additionally, we want to highlight initiatives, communities and projects, which cherish and practice queer-feminist solidarity. These contributions aim at telling interested people about your initiative/project/event. We will provide space to highlight and feature these queer-feminist solidarities in our Forum.
Please send abstracts describing your idea in 1000 to 2500 signs (blanks included) until April 20th to .
Time schedule for issue #9 in 2024
Call for contributions: March 20th 2024
Deadline for submitting abstracts: April 20th
Feedback on your abstracts: April 30th
Submission of first full version of contributions: June15th
Review feedback: August 30th
Submission final version of contribution: September 30th
Planned date of publication: November-December 2024
Call for Contributions: Queer STS Forum #8: Queer-Feminist Inclusion and Visibility – Overcoming Stories of Exclusion and Invisibility in Science, Education and Technology
Editors: Jenny Schlager & Anita Thaler
In our last Forum #7 we opened a discourse around “academic kindness” as queer-feminist intervention in contemporary violent and hierarchical working cultures and actualization of a feminist ethics of care. By looking closer at different levels of application of academic kindness, in pedagogical settings and research practices, we stumbled upon the notion of inclusion, and wondered why even in equity driven settings (non-)human actors are excluded.
Noticing practices of exclusion and making (non-)humans invisible, we find that especially now in time of multiple crises, we need to overcome traditional dichotomies and the delegitimization of certain forms of knowledges. We need to change our discourses of socio-eco-technological transformation by telling stories together and valuing situated knowledges (Haraway 2016; Rohracher 2022).
And we have so many questions and points of discussion: How inclusive are participatory research projects actually? How can we reach out to vulnerable groups in our communities in citizen science activities? How can we overcome boundaries and limitations and be truly welcoming in our educational settings? How can we overcome learning practices, which cultivate “epistemological assimilation” and move towards “epistemic diversity” (McNeill et al. 2022)? How can we offer save spaces and brave spaces (Arao & Clemens 2013) for LGBTQIA+? Which roles play architecture, infrastructure and technologies (Boys 2022)? How can we engage in multispecies activities (Haraway 2016; Petitt & Brandt-Off 2022)? In other words: How can we overcome stories of invisibility (Leyva et al. 2022)?
We are not the first ones asking these questions. We know that there is a lot of valuable knowledge and practical experience in the world already. Therefore, we invite our queer STS community and friends to combine these questions, maybe think even further, and acknowledge previous work: What can we learn from disability studies, from critical race scholars and practitioners working inclusively for decades and helping us with our vision of a queer-inclusive science and technology? What can we learn from feminists and artists thinking and doing museums queer inclusively (Grácio et al. 2020)? What can we learn from multispecies ethnographers working on multispecies communities of social learning (Petitt & Brandt-Off 2022)? What can we learn from educators who broaden up participation in STEM fields among students minoritized by race, gender, and/or sexuality (McNeill et al. 2022)?
We are explicitly interested in practical and empirical implementations of queer-feminist inclusion and visibility. How can it actually look like, how can it be done? We invite contributions from research papers to creative formats using audios, videos, images, texts – to illuminate and share queer-feminist inclusive ideas and experiences in science, education and technology for a multi-media open access publication opportunity in our Queer STS Forum #8/2023.
Please send abstracts describing your idea in 1000 to 2500 signs (blanks included) until April 3rd to .
Time schedule for issue #8 in 2023
Call for contributions: March 2023
Deadline for submitting abstracts: April 3rd
Feedback on your abstracts: April 14th
Submission of first full version of contributions: May 31st
Review feedback: August 31st
Submission final version of contribution: October 1st
Planned date of publication: November-December 2023
In our first issue of the Queer STS Forum we reflected on our queer approach to Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS). We shared how we often find ourselves intervening in meetings, in our social media activities, in our university courses, during conferences, and when we do research. Most of the time, the main topics we deal with do not directly relate to queer studies, but in a wider sense to queer thinking and issues of social justice. Simply by asking ‘queer questions’[1] and thinking in alternatives, we irritate colleagues, we intervene in our classes or during conferences, and we interact with (and thereby learn from) like-minded people.
[1] „In general, by adopting a queer perspective, we have to reflect on the ways we, as researchers, contribute to the reproduction of e.g. gender as a binary and the heterosexual norm. We have to identify hegemonic discourses in our field of research and critically question in which ways they exclude or marginalize perspectives. We have to revise our methodology and the assumptions we base our interpretations of data on. One example for these efforts is that in some cases we shifted our focus from gender as a category of differentiation and tried to find other explanations for the phenomenon at hand. This way we could avoid the reproduction of gender stereotypes and conclusions being drawn on basis of heteronormativity.“ (Hofstätter 2012, p. 4)
The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic changed our professional and private lives suddenly and immensely. The notion of relevance (“e.g. jobs relevant for the system”) shifted, care-work and privileges became very visible. Some hoped that lock-down measures – to “flatten the curve” of infections – will lead to a higher appreciation of paid and unpaid labour of care and corrode its inherent gender inequalities.
However, inequities in our societies have not magically vanished, we learned that gender violence might occur at even higher levels in forced quarantine and many women* experienced a re-traditionalization of gender roles in their homes. Social inequality also plays out in terms of access to education and work through technology and internet, and possibilities of digitized kin making. How has the pandemic affected you and your communit(ies)? What are your observations of social change occurring? What has remained consistent – if anything – and what are new possibilities that have opened up?
We are seeking for contributions – audios, videos, images, texts – to illuminate and share queer-feminist experiences of these pandemic times. We are explicitly interested in intersectional analyses and experiences from different living contexts and geographical areas
Please send us abstracts describing your idea in 2000 to 2500 signs (blanks included) until July 20th to .
Time schedule for issue #5 in 2020
Call for contributions: June 18th
Deadline for submitting abstracts: July 20th
Feedback on your abstracts: July 31st
Submission of first full version of contribution: August 31st
Review feedback: September 18th
Submission final version of contribution: October 30th
Planned date of publication: November 30th
While 2018 takes its last breath, we present the third edition of our Queer-Feminist Science and Technology Studies Forum, in which we aimed at ‘queering diversity’ and searched for the queer and the class in academia and research. Our idea behind this issue was to take a closer look at the – supposed – gap between diversity policies and actual practices.
We have four exciting contributions: Claudia Chiang-Lopez from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, critically discusses the various hegemonic interpretations of students leaving/being pushed out of secondary and tertiary education. Daniela Zanini-Freitag, member of our Queer STS working group, held with Jay Pongruengphant, the current UNDP national officer on Governance, Human Rights and LGBTI of the Being LGBTI in Asia programme. Tessa Leach critically examines the sexbot inherent conflict of neoliberal commodification of women’s bodies and the fear of objectification and violence of some feminist discourses and is also a teaser for next year’s fourth issue of our Queer STS Forum which will be discussing “Queer-feminist perspectives on sex robots” (CfP here!).The fourth and final contribution is a conversational interview between Daniela Jauk, co-editor and member of our Queer STS working group and Reni Hofmüller who is a multidimensional queer-feminist artist, art organizer, media maker, DIY tech activist, educator, and so much more.
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