Sociology Department Colloquium: Susan Stryker
Please join us for a colloquium being given by Susan Stryker, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona.
Title: What Transpires Now: The Frances Thompson Case and Trans History in the Present
Abstract: In this lecture, historian Susan Stryker explores the case of a 19th-century transfeminine person named Frances Thompson, whose story unfolded in the pages of newspapers across the United States between 1866-1876. Mass media exploited Thompson's story in the context of post-Civil War social polarization and a hotly contested Presidential election. Her case presciently foreshadows contemporary reactionary uses of trans issues as a political wedge to suggest that contemporary anti-trans politics are not a backlash to recently-emergent transgender social movements, but rather are deeply rooted in the history of race and racism, as well as structural weaknesses in the constitutional order.