Stem the Tide: Trans Studies Against Authoritarianism
Topic Summary:
This mini-course examines the global rise of anti-trans politics and how authoritarian movements increasingly utilize “gender” and “transness” as a central mobilizing language. Both nationally and transnationally, attacks on trans life may appear to be a moral panic, but they also reflect broader efforts to dismantle redistributive social institutions and undermine research-based knowledge. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in trans, queer, and feminist studies; political theory; comparative literature; and the social sciences; the course traces how these dynamics operate across several contemporary “hot spots” where the legitimacy of trans existence is being systematically contested. These include competitive sports, science and medicine, systems of imprisonment, immigration, and state bureaucracies. Through weekly readings and discussion, participants will analyze how these arenas emerge as testing grounds for broader authoritarian strategies that reshape bodily autonomy, the function of the state, the politics of knowledge, and public life more generally. At the same time, the course will engage key debates within trans studies and activism that question whether “gender” itself remains a sufficient analytic framework for understanding these political transformations. By situating present conflicts within longer histories of authoritarianism and social movements, the course aims to equip participants with conceptual tools for interpreting and resisting the contemporary escalation of anti-trans politics.
See the syllabus here (To come!)!
Facilitators:
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 2023 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed her PhD in English at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in GLQ, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, American Studies, and the edited collection, 91TV Face: Stonewall, Revolt, and New Queer Art. Her book-in-progress, Still / Life: Trans Genre and the Politics of Anti-Development, analyzes two seemingly disparate uses of "transition": first, to describe a person's shift from one gender to another, and second, to narrate a nation's political change through key terms like "democratization" and "development." Taking case studies from Argentina, Chile, the Philippines, and Vietnam, Still / Life argues that these invocations of transition form a unified history of state management from the 1970s to the present, masking neoliberal violence and promoting one "proper" path to prosperity for both individuals and nations.
Chris Hannssmann studies the politics of health, science and medicine, focusing on relationships between biomedicine and social movements. His first book, Care Without Pathology, is a transnational analysis of trans health activisms and practices. Published with University of Minnesota Press, it examines how activists and care providers define the field, enact care as a public good, cultivate coalitions, and grapple with ranging meanings of depathologization. He works collaboratively with researchers and activists in feminist, queer and trans feminist health and justice, and has published articles in Transgender Studies Quarterly, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Feminist Formations, and Social Science and Medicine.
Dates, Times & Structure:
Wednesdays 10am-1pm PT/1-4pm ET, June 10th, June 17th, June 24th, & July 8th, 2026. The summer session is entirely online. There will be weekly meetings with facilitated discussion using Zoom. Before each meeting, there will be materials for you to read/watch, and these are primarily academic. Please ensure you have time and energy to commit to attending all or most meetings, doing all readings in advance of meetings, and participating in discussion (spoken or messaged) during meetings before you apply :)
Cost: Free!
Funded by Dr. Sari van Anders' Canada Research Chair in Gender/Sex & Sexual Diversity.