Fall 2025 - Class Option #2
Gender, Trans, and All That Comes After
Gender, Trans, and All That Comes After invites students into a conversation about the history of gender and how gender organizes our world. We ask: what does it mean to say that gender is a construct? What is the gender binary? What is transgender? How long have transgender people been around? We address these questions through dialogues in the field of Gender and Trans Studies, the Black radical tradition, and Latin American perspectives, offering an intersectional approach to gender. In the first half of the course, we begin by exploring gender through popular uses of “trans” to broaden our definitions of the term. We will explore trans histories from multiple continents and historical periods, and we will consider how trans experiences can both embrace and challenge gender’s borders and beyond. Students will leave the course with a deeper understanding of the complex history of gender; what effect trans, nonbinary, and nonnormative identities have on our understanding of gender; and the importance of having an informed perspective on gender and its effects. This course is co-taught by two interdisciplinary scholars—Marquis Bey, professor of Black Studies and Gender Studies, and S. B. West, a professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultures and Gender Studies.
Possible texts/media
Black On Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, C. Riley Snorton
Transgender History, Susan Stryker
A Nonbinary Life, Marquis Bey
Autonomy and Abolition in Yucatán’s Caste War, S.B. West
“Evil Deceivers and Make Believers,” Talia Bettcher
Prospective field trips may include Defy Gravity’s Trans* Artists Circus Performance, Champaign, IL; Transgender Day of Remembrance Chicago Event; and others.
Instructors
Marquis Bey is Professor of Black Studies and Affiliate Faculty in Gender & Sexuality Studies.
S.B. [Esbi] West (they/them [English]; elle/ella, -a, -e [Spanish]) is Associate Professor of Instruction in Gender & Sexuality Studies and is Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese.