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Guido Caniglia and Coleen Vogel win the GAIA Best Paper Award 2023 for their article “On being oriented. Strengthening transgressive orientations in transdisciplinary sustainability research through queer theory”.
In this avantgarde paper, Guido and Coleen propose to use ‘queer’ as a verb, signifying a way of challenging assumptions and established norms about research through anti-normative, anti-categorical, and intersectional questioning.
To quote the abstract of the paper: “We move from a provocative analogy: that transdisciplinary sustainability researchers are to academia what queer people are to a heteronormative and sex/gender binary world. Both may experience disorientation and need to learn how to transgress established norms. Queer people and scholars have extensively dealt with (dis)orientation and celebrated transgression. We suggest that queer theory can help transdisciplinary sustainability researchers to raise questions that intensify the transgressive orientations of their work when contributing to just and equitable sustainability transformations.”
The proposal advocates for strengthening transgressive orientations in transdisciplinary (TD) sustainability research through queer theory, and invites critical questions about research methods and researcher identities, prompting reflection on embracing the discomfort of challenging norms. Queering TD sustainability research implies the inclusion and empowerment of queer and marginalized actors in research spaces, and learning from those who resisted normalization. These actors bring valuable perspectives to guide research toward more just futures amidst social, political, and environmental crises. This perspective revolutionises and open new dialogues in transdisciplinary sustainability research.
Our heartiest congratulations to Guido and Coleen!!
With its Best Paper Award, GAIA's Editorial Board honours the best article(s) of the year. The article(s) are selected for their excellence and/or relevance, which are important criteria in sustainability research.
The winner is selected from articles published in GAIA, in the sections Forum and Research. Based on a shortlist drawn up by the Editorial Board, the winner is nominated by a reasoned vote of the members of GAIA’s Scientific Advisory Board.
All Best Papers can be accessed free of charge.