Editors:

Dr Helen Bowes-Catton and Dr Kaye McLelland (Open University)

We are delighted to have been approached by Routledge to edit a major new reference book on bisexuality. This landmark volume will bring together scholars and activists from all over the globe to reflect on 50 years of bisexual research and activism. Grounded in the social sciences with insights from across the arts and humanities, this field-defining book will critically examine long-standing debates, provide an overview of the current state of bisexual studies, give fresh perspectives and insights into neglected and emerging areas, and help to set the agenda for future research.

It is our aim to produce a book which-

• Foregrounds the priorities and perspectives of bisexual communities, bringing community knowledges to an academic audience,
• Is genuinely intersectional in its understanding of bisexualities,
• Reflects critically on the role of minority world understandings of (bi)sexualities in the reproduction of white supremacy, and considers how, and whether, bisexualities might be decolonised,
• Provides a complex, nuanced, and wide-reaching picture of the state of bisexual studies across the arts, humanities and social sciences
• Considers the ways in which the idea of bisexuality is deployed in narrative and culture, and the impact of these tropes on the lived experiences of bisexual subjects,

Audience

This book will be a reference work aimed primarily at the international academic library market. It will be of interest to academics, activists, researchers, and postgraduates, as well as to a wider readership.

Structure of the book

It is important to us that the book should be intersectional from the ground up and have its priorities set by bisexual activists and communities. To this end, each section of the book will be prefaced by readings from key activist texts that will set the content and agenda for that section.

List of potential book sections and chapter topics

The overall structure of the book will be determined by the themes and priorities emerging from submitted chapter proposals. The list of potential topics below is not exhaustive -the editors also welcome proposals on other topics that fall within the remit of the book. The structure and approach of book chapters can be decided by each author. It is the intention of the editors that intersectionality and decoloniality should be integral to the book rather than being considered only in a discrete section.

• Bisexualities in stories, myths, archetypes, tropes and memes
• Intersections of bisexualities with race, class, gender, disability, faith, neurodiversity, nationality, immigration status and other related identities (including pansexuality)
• Bisexual histories; discursive histories of bisexuality, historical bisexuality, the politics of ‘reclaiming’ historical figures as bi
• Bisexual futures
• Non-monosexualities in the majority world
• Bisexual spaces; bisexual community online, bisexual liminalities, bisexualities in LGBTQ+ spaces and communities, bisexual events, the bisexual everyday
• Bisexual sex; bisexual erotic subjectivities, practices, imaginaries, sex education
• Bisexuality and relationships; monogamies and non-monogamies, bisexual domesticity, bi visibility in relationships
• Bisexuality and the life course; coming of age narratives, bi youth, bi parenting, bi ageing
• Bisexuality and temporality; temporary or transient bisexuality, situational bisexuality, fixity and fluidity
• Bisexuality and culture; media portrayals of bisexuality, literary genre and bisexuality,  bisexuality in porn, bisexuality in education
• Bisexuality and wellbeing; interpersonal violence, loneliness, mental health, addiction, sport, healthcare
• Narrative, rhetorical and discursive functions of bisexuality, ‘straight, gay, or lying’
• Bisexuality research; historiography, the current state of the art, future directions

Please send your book chapter proposals of up to 500 words to Helen Bowes-Catton (helen.bowes-catton@open.ac.uk) and Kaye McLelland kaye.mclelland@open.ac.uk) by : 1^st December 2021.