This unit offers a study of the identities, relationships, and lived experiences of trans and sex/gender diverse peoples. It engages an interdisciplinary and intersectionality approach and draws from sociology, feminism, and post-colonialism (among others) to address the social construction, regulation, criminalisation, and medicalisation of trans and sex/gender diverse peoples. The unit explores the emergence of the trans movement in the 20th century and how it led to not only a broad spectrum of sex/gender diverse identities, relationships, and lived experiences in the 21st century, but how it also led to trans theory. Inspired by gender theory, feminism, and queer theory, trans theory encompasses a large array of theoretical perspectives that illustrate how trans and sex/gender diverse peoples have disrupted and changed normative notions of sex and gender.
Students will be introduced to key thinkers who have contributed to the trans movement and trans theory such as Leslie Feinberg, Sandy Stone, and Kate Bornstein. More specifically, the unit focuses on the contemporary identities, relationships, and lived experiences of trans and sex/gender diverse peoples in Australia; for example, students will be introduced to Australia's trans and sex/gender diverse First Nations Peoples (also known as sistergirls and brotherboys) and how they navigate the dual issues of transphobia in traditional communities and racism in predominantly white trans community. Students will also get across contemporary issues internationally, for example, the criminalisation of trans people in the United States of America and the official recognition of the Hijras as a third gender in India.
