Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Journal of Artistic Creation and Literary Research (JACLR), https://www.ucm.es/siim/journal–of–artistic–creation–and–literary–research  

Guest Editors: Sara Tabuyo-Santaclara (Universidade de Vigo) and Iria Seijas-Pérez (Universidade de Vigo)

Deadline: September 1, 2025

In recent years, girls have been progressively gaining increased visibility in popular culture. 2023 has been considered by different media outlets as “the year of the girl” (Firth 2023), which became especially noticeable on social media. Trends like girl math or girl dinner filled sites such as TikTok or Instagram where girls may find a space to express themselves and connect with other like-minded people. The release of Barbie (2023),

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (2023-2024) or more recently Charli XCX’s album brat (2024) have all interpellated girls and worked as grounds for connection through enacting girlhood. Nevertheless, it seems that these girlhood trends are inevitably performed through their adaptation to idealized images of girls shaped by postfeminist market requirements.

Girlhood Studies addresses precisely the experiences and representations of girls in a range of formats and manifestations (Mitchel, Reid-Walsh and Kirk 2008, vii). The field of Girlhood Studies did not begin to take shape until the 1990s when girls began to be considered as agentic subjects to analyze, instead of incomplete individuals expected to become passive women (Currie, Kelly, and Pomerantz 2009, 4; Kearney 2009, 11). This field constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to girlhood in a variety of settings and cultural productions, a transnational perspective that considers the particularities of both their collective and individual experiences in terms of their political, cultural, and/or historical contexts.

Although girls have been historically marginalized due to their lack of visibility and presence across society (Kearney 2009), they are currently experiencing a moment of hypervisibility that we are seeking to address. Anita Harris has developed the concept of the future girl, a particular kind of young woman that is hailed as the ideal subject of late modernity and praised for her ability to adapt to the constant fluctuation of her social, political and cultural context (2004, 1). Several girlhood scholars have addressed the conflicting stereotypes that are imposed on girls, often dividing them as either innocent, fragile and obedient or as hyper-sexualized postfeminist subjects, thus perpetuating patriarchal ideals and norms (Gonick 2006; Harris 2006; McRobie 2007). In order to fit in, girls may internalize these reductive and damaging roles as acceptable at the same time as they feel pressure to abandon other possibilities for self-awareness outside what has been established as “normal”.

Following Mitchell, Reid-Walsh and Kirk (2008), the aim of this issue is not to declare a universalized or monolithic definition of girlhood, on the contrary, we seek to attend to the particularities of girlhoods, and how cultural, social and political differences influence individual and collective experiences. To do so, we seek to rely on notions of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991), which have served to pluralize girlhood (Currie 2015), and feminist theories, as these allow for the examination of the many ways intersecting oppressions (Crenshaw 1991) become intertwined to “fix” girls within the matrix of domination (Hill Collins 2000) that supports the maintenance of heteropatriarchal hierarchies. This special issue aims to provide an intersectional approach to girlhood(s) by analyzing their depiction in cultural productions such as films, series, and literature, among others. Moving from stereotypical notions of girls as delicate or as sexualized subjects, this publication will attempt to recognize the different forms of girlhood(s) that exist across society, thus giving prominence to those girls who are often rendered invisible. Contributions to this special issue on visibilizing intersectional girlhood(s) in contemporary Anglophone cultural manifestations may address topics such as (but not limited to): 

• Queering girlhood: sapphic and trans girlhoods
• Indigenous girlhoods
• Girls and postfeminism
• Girls and activism
• Dissenting girlhoods
• Utopian/dystopian representations of girlhoods
• Refugee girlhoods
• Intersections of gender, class, race, ability, sexuality and/or religion across girlhoods
• Postcolonial or decolonial girlhoods

Creative pieces such as short stories and poetry (though we are open to other formats of artistic creations such as video essays) on the above-mentioned topics are also welcome for submission. Interviews to writers and scholars and reviews of books, films, and TV shows that focus on girlhoods can also be submitted. Should you be interested in these forms of contributions, please contact the guest editors with your proposals beforehand.   JACLR is a peer-reviewed, open access journal indexed in EBSCO. You can learn more about the journal’s review process, style guide and past issues here: https://www.ucm.es/siim/journal–of–artistic–creation–and–literary–research. JACLR issues undergo a peer-review process, and templates and style guidelines can be found at https://www.ucm.es/siim/jaclr–template. All submissions to JACLR must be original, unpublished work. Articles should be around 6000-9000 words and follow the current Chicago 17th edition Notes and Bibliography format. Reviews should be between 1000 and 1500 words. As for creative works, these should not exceed 10 pages. 

Contributions should be submitted by 1 September 2025 to sara.tabuyo.santaclara@uvigo.gal and iria.seijas@uvigo.gal. This special issue is planned to be published in early 2026. Do not hesitate to contact the guest editors if you need further information.

This special issue is part of the research project “Communitas/Immunitas: Relational Ontologies in Atlantic Anglophone Cultures of the 21st Century” (PID2022-136904NB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. P.I. Belén Martín-Lucas.

Bibliography

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43 (6): 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.

Currie, Dawn H. 2015. “From Girlhood, Girls, to Girls’ Studies: The Power of the Text.” In Girls, Texts, Cultures, edited by Clare Bradford and Mavis Reimer, 17-35.

Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Currie, Dawn H., Deirdre M. Kelly, and Shauna Pomerantz. 2009. “(Re)Claiming Girlhood.” In Girl Power: Girls Reinventing Girlhood, edited by Currie, Dawn H., Deirdre M. Kelly, and Shauna Pomerantz, 1–26. New York: Peter Lang.

Firth, Emma. 2023. “How 2023 Became The Year Of The #Girl.” ELLE. December 23.

https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a46125868/girl-tiktok-trends/.

Gonick, Marnina. 2006. “Between ‘Girl Power’ and ‘Reviving Ophelia’: Constituting the

Neoliberal Girl Subject.” NWSA Journal: A Publication of the National Women’s Studies Association 18 (2): 1–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317205.

Harris, Anita. 2004. Future Girl: Young Women in the Twenty-First Century. New York and London: Routledge.

Hill Collins, Patricia. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.

Kearney, Mary Celeste. 2009. “Coalescing: The Development of Girls’ Studies.” NWSA

Journal: A Publication of the National Women’s Studies Association 21 (1): 1–

28. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2009.a263654. 

McRobbie, Angela. 2009. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. SAGE Publications. Mitchell, Claudia, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, and Jackie Kirk. 2008. “Welcome to This Inaugural Issue of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (GHS).” Girlhood Studies 1 (1): vii-xv. https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2008.010101