Second Wave Trans Feminism
Intersectional Humanities Research Hub
Wednesday 14 February 2024, 3pm - 5pm
Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building
Speaker: Dr Emily Cousens
All welcome
Emily Cousens (They/She) is a Lecturer in the History of Gender and Sexuality at Birkbeck, University of London. Their interests are in feminist (trans, queer, lesbian radical) print culture from the 1970s, prefigurative politics of “liberation”, and alternative visions for gender. Emily’s new book, Trans feminist epistemologies in the US Second Wave, was published by Palgrave in August 2023.
Why do "second wave" and "trans feminism" rarely get considered together? And what are the intellectual precedents for contemporary trans feminisms and trans imaginaries in the 1970s? This talk will discuss some of the key themes in Emily's book Trans feminist epistemologies in the US Second Wave. It will focus on the overlooked contributions to sex/gender knowledges of transfeminine individuals writing in underground newspapers and community focussed print publications during the 1970s. It will also cover some of Emily's subsequent work which builds on their archival research into 1970s trans community print culture, exploring wha short-lived identities such as the "male lesbian" can illuminate about femme/femininity/feminism today. The talk will be followed by a Q+A.
