The networking day was to discuss how to further build trans studies in the UK and how it might relate to fields like queer and feminist studies.
The event was the second in a series of networking events hosted by the AHRC-funded network 'Beyond Radical: Queer Theory and the UK'. 'Beyond Radical' aims to make space in the UK for anyone interested in the continued interrogation and development of queer theory.
As organisers, we were delighted with a fantastic turnout for this event. The number of people who attended demonstrates a real appetite for academic spaces to consider transgender theory within the UK. We were incredibly pleased to welcome scholars at the cutting edge of the field to Birmingham for these conversations, and we look forward to seeing how work in this area will be taken forward.
Dr Elliot Evans - Associate Professor in Modern Languages.
Topics covered in a series of keynotes and panel debates included - In what kinds of disciplines will trans studies be possible? How will this relate to existing scholars and scholarship in gender and sexuality studies? How does/can trans theory relate to feminism in the UK? Are there specificities of the UK context and its colonial history/present that will guide future work in this area? Is it possible to think of transness and trans people outside the frame of social emergency/problem?
As a speaker I found the day energizing and deeply necessary. Rich, careful scholarly conversations like these about trans, non-binary, and queer studies are crucial in a time when LGBTQ and especially trans people are being targeted and criminalised in new ways.
Professor Mo Moulton - Professor of Modern British and Irish History.
Beyond Radical is an AHRC-funded research network for UK-based scholars, artists and activists interested in the continued interrogation and development of queer theory.
For scholars based in the UK, researching trans lives and cultures offers a specific set of challenges. For one thing, while there are plenty of scholars working on trans topics, “trans studies” as a field has much less sense of the formal organisation of trans studies in somewhere like the US. At the same time, the precarious place of trans people in the UK can make it seem especially urgent for research to focus on tackling immediate social problems. This in turn has tended to mean that the social sciences have become the main home for trans studies here.
