19 June 2023
- RSIS
- Publication
- External Publications
- Gender and sexuality in Asia
Gender and sexuality in Asia
Several years ago, we were invited to put together a special issue for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. This is a journal that deals with the management of social plurality, issues that are close to our hearts, and so we said yes without hesitation. However, coming up with a topic for this special issue proved to be harder than we thought. As we are trained in different academic disciplines, we examined EDI issues through multiple lenses and at different levels. Our research also focused on different aspects of diversity and used different methodological approaches. It took us several rounds of discussions to converge on a topic for this special issue because we did not want this to be a “special issue” in the literal sense but a “special” issue in which we not only attempt to fill a void in the literature, but also to provide a legitimate space for voices and issues that are marginalized through structural inequalities. We married our respective research interests in gender, sexuality and culture and leveraged our understanding of the research in this area to put together this special issue on Gender and Sexuality in Asia.
Through this journey of reviewing abstracts and papers, we have come to the realization that linguistic diversity, economic disparities, access to quality graduate education and different cultural interpretations of gender have limited the visibility of research on gender and sexuality in Asia, particularly in mainstream, English language publications. This guest editorial journey was not simply one of reviewing papers for their quality, but also one in which we support and enable authors (especially those whose first language is not English) to articulate their research so that there is greater visibility and understanding of their perspectives. Not surprisingly, issues on gender and sexuality are often enacted and interpreted in their emic indigenous forms specific to that emic cultural background. We hope that this special issue will be that wedge in the door to allow for more research in this part of the world to be known to an English-speaking academic community, and we hope that you enjoy reading this set of papers.
Several years ago, we were invited to put together a special issue for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. This is a journal that deals with the management of social plurality, issues that are close to our hearts, and so we said yes without hesitation. However, coming up with a topic for this special issue proved to be harder than we thought. As we are trained in different academic disciplines, we examined EDI issues through multiple lenses and at different levels. Our research also focused on different aspects of diversity and used different methodological approaches. It took us several rounds of discussions to converge on a topic for this special issue because we did not want this to be a “special issue” in the literal sense but a “special” issue in which we not only attempt to fill a void in the literature, but also to provide a legitimate space for voices and issues that are marginalized through structural inequalities. We married our respective research interests in gender, sexuality and culture and leveraged our understanding of the research in this area to put together this special issue on Gender and Sexuality in Asia.
Through this journey of reviewing abstracts and papers, we have come to the realization that linguistic diversity, economic disparities, access to quality graduate education and different cultural interpretations of gender have limited the visibility of research on gender and sexuality in Asia, particularly in mainstream, English language publications. This guest editorial journey was not simply one of reviewing papers for their quality, but also one in which we support and enable authors (especially those whose first language is not English) to articulate their research so that there is greater visibility and understanding of their perspectives. Not surprisingly, issues on gender and sexuality are often enacted and interpreted in their emic indigenous forms specific to that emic cultural background. We hope that this special issue will be that wedge in the door to allow for more research in this part of the world to be known to an English-speaking academic community, and we hope that you enjoy reading this set of papers.
