Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 297TC - ST-Intro/Trans* Studies

While mainstream discourse tends to frame "transgender" as a perpetually new phenomenon, this survey of transgender studies will contextualize present-day conversations in a longer intellectual history. We will be guided by questions like: What does trans mean and how has its meaning been shaped by regimes of gender, racism, colonization, ableism, and medical and legal regulation? What have emerged as the main concerns of transgender studies/activism and how has trans studies interacted with more established academic fields? How have trans artists, activists, and scholars helped us to imagine other, more just worlds? By engaging with scholarship from multiple fields, as well as a range of creative work, we will map the emergence of "transgender" as both an object of knowledge and a way of knowing.