Our gender/sexuality/italy: Collaboration as Feminist Practice

Abstract

The collaboration of the three authors began with founding g/s/i – gender/sexuality/italy, an open-source journal now (in 2021) entering its eighth year. This collaboration has been nurtured by others we have participated in: Ellen and Nicoletta with the organisation of a touring theatre piece and translation from 2010 (Marco Baliani’s Body of State) and their current co-authored book project on WinxClub. Paola and Nicoletta are currently in the early stages of a co-authored article on female teen sexuality in Italian TV series, and Paola has collaborated on an archive-based research project with her graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin, the results of which were published in a special section of The Italianist in 2019. The three-way collaboration on g/s/i also benefits from labour organisation and decision-making. We discuss all important editorial practices, policies, and questions, but each take primary responsibility for particular sections of the journal. Nicoletta edits the ‘Themed’ section that corresponds to the all call for papers, Ellen has oversight of ‘Open Contributions’ and ‘Continuing Discussions’, and Paola edits and curates ‘Invited Perspectives’. Over time, several colleagues have served as editors of the reviews section, with Colleen Ryan and Erica Moretti currently sharing those responsibilities. Junior colleagues, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate students have also served in administrative capacities, setting the stage for transgenerational exchanges and others we call ‘transacademic’. We have promoted conversations about how to establish other collaborations within our intersecting fields, including with other institutions, organisations, and journals. This conversation for The Italianist came as an invitation from one set of journal editors to another and in response to the call for papers for g/s/i 7, which centres on collaboration.