For the third and final event in our Trans and Queer Voices in Performance Research series, we’re delighted to welcome Donna Marcus Duke back to Oxford. Donna contributed generously and provocatively to our first study day in Michaelmas, and we’re very glad to be hosting them again for this hands-on, politically engaged workshop, developed in collaboration with TISSUE, Donna’s own publishing initiative.
In the wake of the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, this session asks directly: when we call for trans rights now, what is it that we want? What kinds of worlds are we fighting for—and can those worlds be secured within institutions or the framework of the state? Moving beyond the limits of representational politics, the workshop turns to independent publishing as a material and collective practice—a way of building infrastructures for trans life that exceed visibility and gesture towards structural change.
Together, we’ll explore how publishing can function as a tool of political community-building. How might the circulation of texts cultivate collective conscience? How might reading events galvanize social bonds—or operate as sites of fundraising and mutual support? How might literary pedagogy nurture cultural ambition and personal transformation?
We’ll compare contemporary trans and queer initiatives—including Sticky Fingers Publishing, Sissy Anarchy, The Bittersweet Review, and Donna’s own TISSUE—with queer zines and pamphlets from the 1970s–90s, tracing how these practices have worked over time and why they feel newly urgent today.
Designed to be interactive and practical, the workshop will offer space for discussion, shared strategy, and concrete ideas. While centred on queer and trans publishing, it speaks broadly to anyone interested in how cultural production can help us build the worlds we need. We warmly invite students, researchers, and staff to join us for what promises to be a purposeful and engaged close to the series.
Click here to book your place.
Supported by the Performance Research Hub
