Call for Papers on LGBTQ2SI+ Work for CAWLS 2019

December 03, 2018
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Rights and resistance: sexual orientation and gender identity at work

Do you have research that deals with LGBTQ2SI+ work or worker politics? Join this call for papers and participate in the panel Rights and resistance: sexual orientation and gender identity at work. This panel will present at the upcoming CAWLS 2019 conference in June, organized by Suzanne Mills of McMaster University and Sean Waite of Western University.

Please submit all proposals directly to either Sean Waite swaite3@uwo.ca or Suzanne Mills smills@mcmaster.ca by January 11th, 2019.

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"Globally, we are witnessing a rise in the popular support for conservative leaders and public figures who advocate for the retraction of worker rights on the one hand and of the rights of LGBTQ2SI+ people and migrants on the other. At the same time, precedent-setting calls to include protection for LGBTQ2SI+ workers in global trade agreements and international treaties are being met with resistance (Press 2018). The rising political backlash towards LGBTQ2SI rights in Canada, the United States and elsewhere suggests that despite significant advances over the past 30 years, that there is persistent resistance to the elimination of homophobia and transphobia (Browne and Nash 2014). Moreover, commentators have suggested that rising conservative populism is tied to the economic disenfranchisement of the white working-class (Gidron and Hall 2018). As both workers and members of targeted social identity groups, LGBTQ2SI+ workers are at the centre of this shifting political terrain.

This panel aims to build a conversation about these themes by bringing together research about employment and work experiences of LGBTQ2SI+ people as well as research about how labour movements and white working class populist politics are engaging with issues and rights pertaining to sexuality and gender identity more broadly.

We invite papers that examine topics related to a broad array of themes including, but not limited to:

  • The work and employment experiences of LGBTQ2SI+ people
  • Employment and union experiences of racialized and Indigenous LGBTQ2SI+ people
  • The strategies used by unions, worker centres and other organizations to protect LGBTQ2SI+ workers
  • LGBTQ2SI+ worker education initiatives
  • Links between anti-union, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ2SI+ politics
  • Labour related mobility and migration among LGBTQ2SI+ people
  • Connections between mental health and discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation
  • Worker Health and Safety Claims on the basis of LGBTQ2SI+ identity"