Contemporary Academic Feminist Publishing: Frontiers of Oppositional Knowledge

Abstract: This essay focuses on the state of academic feminist publishing in the present. Based on interviews with feminist/women's/gender/sexuality studies journal editors from various countries, the essay explores common as well as place-specific problems and prospects for feminist research and publication in usually tense political environments. Such environments worldwide feature antifeminist, postfeminist, and generally misogynist trends—trends that are threatening progress made by feminist, LGBTQ, antiracist, and other civil rights and awareness-focused social movements. The essay argues that feminist work is usually and ideally interdisciplinary, intersubjective, and intersectional. Therefore, feminist publishing makes space for scholarship that might not neatly fit disciplinary boundaries and conventions—often shining light on marginalized realities and voices. This, among other pertinent reasons, is why feminist publishing must survive and thrive, and feminist journals such as Frontiers engage in intellectual and emotional labor to ensure that critical voices are heard.