The Sociological Quarterly

Queer nightlife is having a moment.

Some have sounded alarms about the closing of gay bars around the world, while others have noted an increase in event-based scenes that challenge assumptions about the configurations of nightlife. Even the academy is alert to its theoretical possibilities, demonstrated with particular force by scholars working in the humanities, where queer nightlife has emerged as a center point for intellectual inquiry and exchange.

From places where we find fun and fellowship at night have come core sociological insights, including an understanding of the sensory aspects of socializing in cities, as Simmel might say. Nightlife supports protest and political organizing, cultivates mutual support networks, provides mating markets, reproduces inequality, showcases economic displays of status, structures urban governance, and organizes creative industries. Yet, a pattern emerges in this literature that is impossible to ignore: while sociologists have a lot to say about nightlife in general, they have remained largely silent about its queer expressions.

Sociology is the systematic study of social life, and our foundational insight is that human beings are not islands unto ourselves but collective creatures. While sociologists are often at the front of public and academic debates, we are falling behind in this area. This special issue is an invitation to inquire about the perspectives that our discipline can bring to a vibrant interdisciplinary conversation. What can sociologists uniquely say about queer nightlife that other fields overlook or omit? How does queer nightlife speak to core concerns of sociology as a discipline?

This call invites papers for a field-defining special issue of The Sociological Quarterly (TSQ) dedicated to sociological perspectives on queer nightlife. TSQ publishes cutting-edge scholarship in all areas of the discipline. The focus of the journal is on publishing the best theoretical, methodological, and empirical (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method) research. Since 1960, the contributors, peer-reviewers, advisory editors, and readers of TSQ have made it one of the leading generalist journals in the discipline.

Interested contributors should take note of the following timeline:

• Expressions of interest: Submit a title and abstract (250-400 words) by email to both editors (Amin Ghaziani, [email protected], and Christopher T. Conner, [email protected]) by July 1, 2024
  • Please specify your question, argument, data, and analytic strategy in the abstract
• Proposal acceptance: Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by July 15, 2024
  • Proposal acceptance does not constitute a guarantee of publication, which is contingent on peer reviews
• Papers: Complete manuscript drafts due by October 15, 2024
• Peer review: The editors will send papers out for external review during the Fall 2024 semester, with an aim to receive reviews by December 2024
  • Authors of accepted papers will be asked to review one other submission
• Revisions: Revised papers are due by March 15, 2025
• Publication: We aim to publish papers in a special issue of 7-10 articles in Fall of 2025

We encourage submissions from scholars of all demographic backgrounds, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, career stages, theoretical traditions, and methodological approaches. Papers may be empirical, applied, or theoretical. Submissions must represent original work that has not been previously published. Direct any and all inquiries to both editors.

Long live a sociology of queer nightlife.