lambda nordica is a peer-reviewed open-access academic journal of LGBTQ studies. The oldest of its kind in the Nordic region, the journal is dedicated to interdisciplinary research in lesbian/gay/bi/trans* and queer studies.
Archives
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Thinking Wildly with Jack Halberstam
Vol. 31 No. 2 (2026)THIS SPECIAL ISSUE of lambda nordica takes stock of literary scholar and theorist Jack Halberstam’s formative influence on queer thinking in the Nordic region. Nordic researchers respond to Halberstam’s call to imagine the world otherwise and engage with his analysis of contemporary cultural phenomena and politics. The issue features three research articles spanning from an exploration of queer temporality through ageplay (Bengtsson), an ethico-political argument for the potential of impotence (Stathopoulos), to a critical examination of Halberstam’s description of the zombie economy of animal-keeping (Lönngren). Three essays thematize aesthetic practices as archives of queer lives (Rosenberg), porn magazines as platforms for queer subjectivities (Rydström), and the influence of Black nihilist and Afropessimist scholars on Halberstam’s notion of unworlding (Weinstein). The issue concludes with a conversation between the editors and Jack Halberstam on the implications of the current U.S. leadership for critical scholars engaged in work on issues of gender, sexuality, race, and diversity.
Cover photo: Del LaGrace Volcano
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Queering National Histories
Vol. 31 No. 1 (2026)WHILE THE NORDIC COUNTRIES are frequently characterized as progressive and LGBTQ+-affirming societies, insiders recognize the substantial historical and contemporary disparities between metropolitan centres such as Copenhagen or Stockholm and the peripheral regions. This special issue examines queer lives and histories situated within political, power-relational, and cartographical peripheries. Two contributions present methodological examples for the queering of national literary canons and national myths through queer historical research. Four papers offer analyses of recent institutional initiatives to
reframe national historical narratives from the perspectives of sexual and gender minorities through memory institutions and commemorative events in Finland, Iceland, and Norway. This special issue is a contribution to queer historiography in national contexts where such scholarship has been notably limited, and to provide critical insights into how national histories can be queered both on narrative levels and through queer practices.Cover art: The ABC Queers by Bianco Casco
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Open issue
Vol. 30 No. 3-4 (2025)THIS OPEN ISSUE encompasses no less than six research articles, an essay, and two reviews. Two of the articles scrutinize Christian communities as contexts in which queers express desires and resistance, in Finland (Alasuutari) and Norway (Røthing, Lilletun Langeland & Widahl). Eirik Skjelstad explores a young nonbinary individual’s navigation of gender, identity, and social norms, and Lena Sotevik and Amanda Nordin analyse young rural queers’ resistance towards urban norms. Queer waiting in the novel The Hours (von Seth), and bottom shaming (Vytniorgu & Garcia-Iglesias) are other themes explored in the research articles. In the issue’s essay Malin Fors muses on an imagined future in which LGBTQ+ educational interventions would be redundant.
