The unity and specificity of GLAD! journal lie in a twofold perspective of gender/sexuality and language, three notions that can be grasped as an object or as epistemological "lenses". More specifically, this intersection between gender, sexualities and language requires a critical approach which allows questioning each of these dimensions.

A critical understanding of language

By critical language understanding we mean an understanding of language as complex material, i.e. non-transparent, polysemic and heterogeneous. Gender studies allow us to re-examine discourses, linguistic structures and their interactions in the light of ideology, to uncover how these linguistic materials are shaped by relationships of power, domination and subversion, but also how these same materials in turn act on ideologies. Moreover, feminist studies have opened the way to a reflection on the situated dimension of the production of discourse - and the knowledge conveyed by it, which on the one hand allows us to rethink the theories of language and discourse as necessarily anchored in their production context, but also to highlight marginal or marginalised discursive productions . This allows us on the one hand to reflect on the constitution of disciplines around language with the critical eye of feminism in order to renew our analytical tools, and on the other hand to nourish and pursue dialogical approaches to language understood as a constitutive space of the social reality.

A critical understanding of gender and sexualities

A critical understanding of gender and sexualities, on the other hand, involves grasping gender, or rather the different discourses of gender and sexualities, in their ideological dimensions. The journal thus adopts a definitely constructivist stance in its approach to gender and seeks to question the essentializing logics at work in linguistic and gender analyses. Moreover, by grasping both gender itself as a partition between the masculine and the feminine, and the different gender ideologies in their inter-relational dimension, the aim is to uncover the discursive and linguistic matrices of these ideologies, and to trace the genealogies of bi-categorization in the light of power and resistance relationships. As such, the discursive practices of minored groups and/or subjects (gendered, sexualized) - in so far as they create "gender disturbances" and reconfigure power relations - will be at the core of the journal's interests as well as the critical analysis of the processes of domination.

Finally, a critical understanding of gender and sexualities seems, in our view, to imply the inseparability of gender with other social relations, notably class, race, age, (ex)colonization etc., and thus to allow the introduction of approaches that have become necessary to understand social situations and attitudes.

The project of the journal is therefore to create a space for multidisciplinary debate which considers power relations in linguistic analysis, the working dimension of language on gender categories, and a non-essentialist understanding of gender, allowing thus a clear reading of the intertwining of the different power relationships. The aim is to explore the way in which language constructs, represents, performs, disrupts, subverts, makes possible or impossible relations between gender and sexuality, while taking into account what these analyses reveal about language and discourse.

Four editorial principles

Four principles guide GLAD!'s editorial policy : multidisciplinary approach, openness to young research and researchers, diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, and finally a non-normative linguistic policy favoring the spreading of ideas across borders and languages.

1. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches

As this journal was initiated by a group of linguists, it seemed important to us not to restrict its area to a single discipline, and on the contrary to tackle the language and gender/sexuality relationship through the association of linguists, anthropologists, philosophers, discourse analysts and literature and cultural studies scholars.

Multidisciplinary approach

Considering that research on language is not exclusive to linguistic studies alone, the journal will welcome any paper from any domain that addresses language issues, in their linguistic, historical, moral, cultural, political, sociological, anthropological, economic, literary, artistic, etc. dimensions. We therefore aim to place gender and language research within the perimeter of human and social sciences, but also to make room for minoritarian or minoritized approaches and methods.

Interdisciplinary approach

By linking gender, sexualities and language, we seek to avoid disciplinary confinement. Inheriting from gender and feminism studies and from Linguistics or discourse analysis, linguistic research on gender is interdisciplinary by its nature. It is therefore a matter of developing approaches that put into question sex, gender, sexualities, discourses and languages from different disciplinary perspectives, simultaneously. Within this framework, gender and language are developed both as points of view and as research objects. The journal therefore encourages an interdisciplinary perspective that promotes exchange and spreading of concepts, knowledge, study objects and methodologies across disciplines.

This matter of discipline is perhaps even more relevant for the subject of language, due to a predominantly sociological and philosophical tradition in gender studies. Gender studies have indeed developed "within" these disciplines. Therefore there is a need for developing a twofold expertise on these issues, which goes beyond integrating gender as a variable in language, or simply viewing language as a gender dimension. The interdisciplinary perspective referred to here will encompass both the subfields of linguistics and the various disciplines of the human and social sciences as long as they are concerned with language and meaning. It will thus be possible to understand language in its discursive, textual, morphological, syntactical, phonetical, literary, pragmatical, semiotical and other possible dimensions, and gender and sexualities in their relational, identity, structural, ideological, material and other possible dimensions.

The journal strongly supports texts that will question disciplinary compartmentalization and foster the spreading of knowledge and the creation of a space open to dialogue between disciplines. However, the journal is careful to avoid a "soft" interdisciplinary approach, which would dilute the scientific requirement of each disciplinary framework.

Moreover, by subscribing to standpoint theory, the journal assumes that all observations are made within an ideological framework that can be analyzed (Burton, 1982; Mills, 1995). It is then a question of working on the possibility of an academic and feminist and/or queer writing by questioning the principles of neutrality and objectivity that can sometimes be demanded or claimed in academic writing.

2. Young research and researcher

Although the journal is not a space dedicated to young researchers, young research is particularly dynamic, with a growing number pf PHD dissertations devoted to these issues. Although the journal is not specifically intended for young research, it actively encourages the publication of such research, with the aim of disseminating the most recent work and innovative approaches which propose new frameworks, sometimes new fields and new theoretical crossroads that we think are worth highlighting.

3. A diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches

The journal is open to different theoretical and methodological approaches and does not represent one school of thought. On the contrary, it will seek to highlight the multiplicity of points of view, and to provide a wider overview of existing research, provided an emancipating perspective implying a true account of situated knowledge is made clear.

4. Languages and Francophonie

Francophonie

The journal addresses the entire French-speaking community, from all continents, in all its plurality. Thus, French-speaking works dealing with areas other than France and studying different languages are welcome.

Plurilingualism

Work on French language written in other languages may be considered, if peer-reviewing is available for these languages. A bilingual publication may occasionally be done. Submissions in French language on any other language are welcome.

Translation

The journal will offer translations into French of reference or innovative texts on gender/sexuality and language issues, in order to help the spreading of knowledge across languages.

Language quality

The journal does not necessarily expect a "native" language level. Only the criteria of fluid understanding and scientific relevance will be taken into account when selecting articles.

Gender marking

The journal leaves total freedom for authors to choose how to mark grammatical gender in their texts and strongly encourages exploratory scriptural processes to challenge the French binary grammatical system.