Susan Stryker, an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Arizona, has been asked about the significance of her “new” field of study for about 25 years.
“It’s not as new as some people think,” she says. “The question for me is why is it suddenly something people are paying attention to in new ways, rather than it being new. There is a strong connection between theoretical and research-oriented interest in transgender phenomena.”
Now she will be presenting at the University of Arizona’s Trans*Studies Conference, which bills itself as the first such event to focus on transgender studies independent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues more broadly. It is hosted by the UA Institute for LGBT Studies.
At the conference, which began on Wednesday and runs until Saturday, scholars are presenting research on topics such as the medical science of transgender individuals and art history in the transgender community, says Eric Plemons, an assistant professor of anthropology and a member of the university’s Transgender Studies Initiative.
For many scholars this is not the first time they are presenting research about transgender studies, Mr. Plemons says.
View the rest of our coverage of the voices of transgender students and academics as they gain visibility on campuses and elsewhere.
Jeanne Vaccaro, a postdoctoral fellow in gender studies at Indiana University at Bloomington, is presenting pictures of transgender individuals from the 1930s to the 1970s to show how they were objectified by mainstream photographers.
She has appeared at other conferences, but this time, Ms. Vaccaro says, being among a group of her peers allows her to go deeper into her research and avoid having to explain the basics of the field.
“You may have to do a lot of Trans 101 and not be able to do a lot of the deeper, richer histories and present them the way that you want to,” Ms. Vaccaro says. “It’s really amazing institutionally to gather a group of scholars like this.”
Her area of research, visual and art history, hasn’t been as prominent as other parts of the transgender-studies discipline, she says.
There’s increased attention, though. For instance, MTV approached Ms. Vaccaro and her colleagues when the cable channel was interested in covering the Trans Day of Remembrance, which memorializes people killed as a result of transphobia.
‘The Stakes Are Really High’
While other scholars may not get similar opportunities to present their research so visibly, Ms. Vaccaro says it’s also a tough spot to be in, as she has to wonder if certain types of visibility are good for transgender history or understanding.
Ms. Stryker has a similar concern. As a historian, she says she’s more interested in how and why people are paying closer attention to transgender studies, even though it’s often referred to as an emerging field.
For example, she says, federal anti-discrimination policy under the Obama administration uses the term “sex” to define whether someone is a man or a woman. Thanks partly to the rise of transgender studies, more people understand the word “sex” as encompassing gender and gender identity, even though there is a difference between the two.
Historians like Ms. Stryker are now studying the unintended consequences of the policy’s language for the transgender community, with hopes of setting the tone for future legislation, she says.
“There is a way of thinking about transgender right now that is often not historically grounded that is being productive and influential,” Ms. Stryker says. “It’s almost like a whole new transgender [field] is being created.”
For Claudia Sofía Garriga López, a doctoral candidate in American studies at New York University, the influence her research may have on future policy making is a new reality scholars in the field have to face, she says.
Ms. Garriga López is studying transgender feminism in Ecuador and how identifying as transgender is becoming a political identity around the world, she says.
We have to be careful, very deliberate, and very precise in our work. It has very real policy implications later.
“It just means that the stakes are really high. We have to be careful, very deliberate, and very precise in our work,” Ms. Garriga López says. “It has very real policy implications later.”
Students have an appetite for this emerging field that can quickly be taken from the classroom to a piece of legislation or a petition, Ms. Vaccaro says.
Typically transgender studies will be covered from one day to a week in an LGBT-studies or gender class, but Ms. Vaccaro says that doesn’t suffice anymore. “Students are extremely hungry and excited for trans studies,” she says.
This conference will not only heighten the demand for more transgender-studies courses, majors, and minors, Ms. Stryker says, but help people understand that the field isn’t just about serving a particular type of student or individual.
“It’s not just a service-oriented field,” she says. “It raises questions about embodiment and difference and knowledge.”
Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.
