Workshop on transgender experience - EASA 2012

[Niko Besnier]

> *European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference 2012: 
> Uncertainty and disquiet *
>
> *Nanterre University, France, 10/07/2012 – 13/07/2012*
>
> *W021 Transgender experience: how societies manage the uncertainty of 
> gender*
>
>
>         /Convenors/
>
> Laurence Hérault (Aix-Marseille Université)
> Niko Besnier (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
>
>
>         /Short Abstract/
>
> Contrary to appearances, gender is uncertain. Transgender experiences 
> are sites where the uncertainty of gender emerges and generates 
> particular disquiet. The workshop seeks to explore multiple ways in 
> which European and non-European societies apprehend contemporary forms 
> of transgender life.
>
>
>         /Long Abstract/
>
> To speak of gender is to speak of certainty: according to widely held 
> essentialist perspectives, gender is certain because it is grounded in 
> biology and anatomy. Yet it is clear that gender is not self-evident 
> and, contrary to appearances, it is uncertain. Transgender activism as 
> well as the experience of the intersex is sites where the uncertainty 
> of gender emerges and generates particular disquiet. What is one to do 
> with and about a person who says s/he does not belong to his/her 
> assigned gender? How do societies apprehend the particular take on 
> gender certainty that the transgender experience represents?
>
> A comparative approach to the question is essential because it is in 
> the contemporary context that the transgender experience constitutes 
> itself in a transnational space. Knowledge, both expert and everyday, 
> of the broad variety of transgender experiences throughout the world 
> is now so widely disseminated that trans-identified people today craft 
> their life designs in a global context. For example, Western 
> transgender persons often turn to "traditional" forms of 
> transgenderism as inspirational models and/or resources for a critique 
> of what they see as Western gender binarism. At the same time, some 
> non-Western transgender persons are demanding and accessing the body 
> modifications (hormone therapy, surgery) made possible by Western 
> medicine since the 20th century, enabling the emergence of new 
> transgender figures in these societies. The workshop seeks to explore 
> multiple ways in which European and non-European societies apprehend 
> contemporary forms of transgender experience.
>
> All proposals must be made via the online form.: 
> http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2012/callforpapers.htm
>
> Proposals should consist of a paper title, a (very) short abstract of 
> <300 characters, and an abstract of 250 words (in French or English). 
> Deadline: Nov 28th 2011
>
>
-- 
Niko Besnier
Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Co-Director, Summer Institute on Sexuality, Society and Culture
Universiteit van Amsterdam

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