This session opens up new lines of flight in archives, methodologies, theories, and speculative imaginaries rooted in black trans feminism, and it aims to both build on the scholarly articulations of black trans feminism as an intellectual-political project (Green & Bey 2017; Gossett and Huxtable 2017; Bey 2022; Smythe 2022; Buchanan & Ikuku 2021) and the brilliant art, writings, community organizing, and freedom dreaming of black trans activists, transcestors, and elders (Snorton 2017; Ellison 2017; Ultra Omni 2023; Tourmaline 2025).

Assigned Readings:

Alexander, Qui Dorian. 2023. “TERF Logics Are Carceral Logics: Toward the Abolition of Gender-Critical Movements or Black Trans Life as Pedagogical Praxis.” Women’s Studies in Communication 46 (2): 230–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2023.2193543.

Janak, Jaden. 2022. “(Trans)Gendering Abolition.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 28 (2): 259–76. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-9608175.

“We Are Here Because of Those That Are Not” (blacktransarchive.com) by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.