Introduction to Trans Studies [4-weeks, $200 Suggested]

***This class has already begun, but interested students can still audit this course asynchronously.

Instructor: Stillman | April 3-April 24 | 5:00-7:00 PM ET

Welcome to Trans Studies! This course will feature a mélange of art, life, and theory by Trans authors and about Trans possibilities. We’ll clarify some terms with Gender: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker, and we’ll read a few selections from memoires like Amateur by Thomas Page McBee and the graphic Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe. We’ll take a glimpse at Trans futures with excerpts from SF like 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. We’ll read a few powerful chapters of Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and hear from nonbinary luminaries like Kate Bornstein and Jeffrey Marsh. We’ll see how the field started with Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein,” and we’ll get political with selections from Transgender Marxism by Gleeson and O'Rourke, and “Wages for Transition” by Harry Josephine Giles. We’ll have our minds blown by the incomparable poet and performer, J Mace III, and dive deep into the NYC Ballroom scene. We’ll explore Trans Magic and punk Genderfuckery with the life-changing comix and stories of Caoimhe Harlock, and we’ll deconstruct trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERFism) with the searing critical acumen of Andrea Long Chu. Through it all we’ll be thinking hard, not only about what Trans means, but also about what Trans does, how Transness changes us, changes worlds, and changes the conditions of possibility for thinking itself!

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We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.

If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.