Aromanticism in Academia 2026
It's that time of year again! It's aromantic spectrum awareness week, which means it's ALSO time for me to make an annual update to my aromanticism in academia list! Basically all the new additions this year come from Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, Revised and Expanded Ten-Year Anniversary Edition, because... I didn't read as many books and such about a-spec stuff as I wanted to. Ah well!
DISCLAIMER BEFORE THE LIST: Due to the lack of discussion of aromanticism specifically in academia, most of what I’ve found are texts that are primarily about asexuality but also discuss aromanticism. It’s unfortunate, but it is also where we’re kind of at right now in terms of academia, so bear that in mind.
Ace Voices: What it means to be asexual, aromantic, demi, or grey-ace by Eris Young - Definitely has the most focus on aromanticism of everything that I’ve read so far, this book draws from a combination of the author’s personal experiences and interviews with other members of the a-spec community, including aroace and alloaro people. A good source of discussion of aro issues and how they interact with things like gender stereotypes. Also notable for its discussion of QPRs, a topic which I find has generally been ignored in academia about a-spec identities.
Ace: What Asexuality reveals about desire, society, and the meaning of sex by Angela Chen - Primarily deals with asexuality, as the title suggests, but also contains some relevant discussions of aromanticism, including the experiences of aroallo people. If you’re going to check out the book, I would especially recommending looking at chapter 7: Romance, Reconsidered, which features most of the discussion of aromanticism and non-normative relationships
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J Brown - Again, asexuality is the main focus here, but I would still recommend checking out this book as it does still contain some useful discussion of aromanticism, particularly an extended critique of “singlism” (i.e. discrimination of single people) and how it is weaponised against aros. I also find Brown’s criticism of the dehumanisation of aromanticism in media to be very compelling!
Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law - I would be remiss not to mention Brake’s work here. While Minimizing Marriage is not specificallly about aromanticism and deals with marriage reform and the concept of amatonormativity more broadly, I think it’s fair to say that many of Brake’s ideas (particularly her coining of amatonormativity as a term) have become vital to the aro community and aro activism in recent years. Definitely a must-read for anyone interested in deconstructing amatonormativity and in contemporary critiques of marriage as an institution, though it’s worth noting that this is a work of moral/political philosophy first and foremost, and as such it gets very into the weeds of things.
Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity by Michael Paramo - An absolutely fantastic book by Michael Paramo, editor of aspec literary journal AZE magazine, that combines history, personal memoir, and analysis. Unique so far in that, as the title suggests, it has a pretty equal focus on asexuality and aromanticism. It was easily one of my favourite books I read last year, and does some truly monumental work in trying to trace a-spec history back to the Victorian times, as well as discussing the intersections between amatonormativity and colonialism. I haven't seen a lot of people talking about this one compared to other a-spec books, and I really encourage everyone to check it out!
Academic Articles/Essays:
“Why didn’t you tell me that I love you?”: Asexuality, Polymorphous Perversity, and the Liberation of the Cinematic Clown by Andrew Grossman - A really interesting and engaging analysis of the archetype of the silent film clown, and how it can be read as an a-spec figure. While Grossman uses the language of asexuality, his analysis makes it clear that he is looking at the clown as both an asexual AND aromantic character. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives.
On the Racialization of Asexuality by Ianna Hawkins Owen - A personal favourite of mine. I think many parts of this essay will be very relevant to aromantic people, particularly Owen’s investigation of how romantic love came to be pedastalised and her critique of attempts to normalise asexuality by distancing it from aromanticism. Available on academia.edu here. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives
Mismeasures of Asexual Desires by Jacinthe Flore - A critique of the pathologisation of asexuality that also discusses how aromanticism challenges common discourses around intimate relationships. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives
Toward an Ace- and Aro-Friendly Society: Reconstructing the Sexual Orientation Paradigm by CJ DeLuzio Chasin - An essay that I absolutely love! I feel like a lot of ace and aro writing can tend towards doomerism a lot of the time, or at least getting bogged down in the problems that we face, so it's really refreshing to read such an in-depth piece of writing exploring what an a-spec-friendly society could actually look like. Really great read with a lot of interesting dissection of the idea of orientation itself. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, Revised and Expanded Ten-Year Anniversary Edition
Ace-Ecologies: The Asexual Erotics of Loving Kin by Ela Przybylo - An interesting discussion of how a-spec thought can be applied to queer ecology and ways of relating with nature. Mostly written from an asexual and not an aromantic perspective, but does contain some discussion of how an "ace-ecological" perspective could disrupt amatonormativity, and how aromantic theory can contribute to expanding our thinking of ways to relate to people and the natural world. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, Revised and Expanded Ten-Year Anniversary Edition
Erasure, Camouflage, Exceptionalism, and Cultural Criticism: Asexuality and Masculinity Threat by Canton Winer - A really interesting analysis of discussions taking place in online forums for asexual men, focusing on how these men talk about the relationship between their asexuality and gender. There's some pretty interesting discussion in here of the differences between the experiences and attitudes displayed by aromantic asexual men and alloromantic asexual men, that I found pretty interesting to read. Published in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, Revised and Expanded Ten-Year Anniversary Edition
Sexuality, romantic orientation, and masculinity: Men as underrepresented in asexual and aromantic communities by Hannah Tessler and Canton Winer - Hannah Tessler has published a lot of really great research on aromanticism, and this paper discusses the role of narratives around sex and romance in constructing gender. If you aren't able to access the paper, @the-agent-of-blight has written up a summary of key points here
The stability of singlehood: Limitations of the relationship status paradigm and a new theoretical framework for reimagining singlehood by Hannah Tessler - Discusses how experiences of certain groups (including aromantic people) challenge the typical construction of singlehood. If you aren't able to access the paper, @the-agent-of-blight has written up a summary of key points here
Aromanticism, asexuality, and relationship (non-)formation: How a-spec singles challenge romantic norms and reimagine family life by Hannah Tessler - Discusses existing norms around the nuclear family and monogamy, and how these norms are challenged by the experiences of a-spec people. If you aren't able to access the paper, @the-agent-of-blight has written up a summary of key points here
The abject single: exploring the gendered experience of singleness in Britain by Ai-Ling Lai, Ming Lim, and Matthew Higgins - While this article doesn't directly discuss aromanticism (perhaps understandable considering it was written in 2015), many of the ideas discussed here will be particularly relevant to aro people. A lot of the points made are similar to those that had already been made by Brake and have since been made by writers like Chen and Brown, but this article links them to the ideas of academics like Judith Butler in a really interesting way, and the interviews on the experiences of single people are fascinating!
Still, Nothing: Mammy and Black Asexual Possibility by Ianna Hawkins Owen - While this essay focuses on asexuality and uses the language of asexuality, I think much of Owen's analysis is also relevant from an aromantic perspective. Another really interesting and valuable read for those who want to read about a-spec identity from a more intersectional perspective. Available from academia.edu here
And an online museum exhibition!
Nonlimerent//Monosexual: An Aromantic and Asexual History curated by Luciella Scarlett - Digital version of a now-closed Australian museum exhibit on asexual and aromantic history. It’s a really rich and interesting collection with a lot of historical interest, and I think it’s also a really great and useful and accessible starting point for finding lots of other sources on aromanticism. Available here
If anyone knows of any other academic writing on aromanticism, please feel free to add them in a reblog! It would be great to use this week as an opportunity to pool educational resources
