Clayman Conversations presents: Trans persistence under attack
A broad assault on the dignity of transgender people, and indeed the very legitimacy of transness, is a central feature of right-wing movements around the world. Misinformation and moral panics recruit the public in anti-trans repression. What can the field of trans studies tell us about how anti-trans politics have coincided with racial antagonism and fascist politics? What can history teach us about persistence and resistance?
About Susan Stryker:
Historian Susan Stryker’s many books, articles, and films have established trans studies for both academic and public audiences. Stryker is a distinguished visitor at the Clayman Institute. Since retiring from the University of Arizona as professor emerita in gender and women’s studies, Stryker has been presidential fellow and visiting professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at Yale University (2019-2020); Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, Mills College (2020-2022); and Marta Sutton Weeks External Faculty Fellow, Stanford University Humanities Institute (2022-23).
About Ava L.J. Kim:
Ava L.J. Kim is an assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and women's studies at the University of California, Davis. She previously held the 2022-2023 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Trans Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed her PhD in English at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in American Studies, TSQ, GLQ, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Radical History Review, and the edited collection, About Face: Stonewall, Revolt, and New Queer Art.
About Eagan Dean:
Eagan Dean (they/he) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute and a scholar of American cultural history. Their research uses archival and literary analysis to understand the origins of contemporary beliefs about gender and transgender life. A co-editor of A Cultural History of Trans Lives in the Nineteenth Century (forthcoming from Bloomsbury), Dean is committed to developing the field of trans cultural history in the U.S. Dean is completing his book manuscript, Inventing American Gender: Nineteenth Century American Literary Gender and its Uses. His publications in journals such as ESQ, Women’s Studies, and Legacy build on this line of research through book historical methods.