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FPST Seminar – Cael Keegan (Carelton University) [online only]
Title: How to do things with ‘trans’
Abstract:What is the conceptual formationtrans, and what can it do? While transgender studies is orientedagainst providing definitive answers, the field does possess a history andan emergent set of critical tools, both similar to and yet divergent from the more institutionallyembraced field of queer studies. Drawing on Susan Stryker’s characterization of transgender studies as queer theory’s “evil twin,” thistalk explores the critical relation enacted between the two fields: Rather thanenvisioning them as opposites, it explores their relation as a fruitfulparadox in which each discourse problematizes and yet enlivens the other’s claims. It then demonstrates trans analytics through a reading of John Carpenter’sThe Thing(1982).