The WoW Talks at George Washington University are 10-minute TED style presentations that offer snapshots of faculty’s latest research.

     In her talk, Professor Joubin will examine why gender has become the latest battle ground for culture wars. Anti-feminist, white nationalist, (trans)misogynist, anti-immigrant, and homophobic movements use “genderism” to evoke a range of disruptive identities and to attack legal and social human rights. The inequities exposed by the pandemic—even as they are cause for grief and anxiety—can spur change for the better.

Trans studies matter all the more now, because transgender theory can help us deconstruct toxic notions of racial and gender purity. Trans theory puts into focus, and thereby expands, our collective understanding of human variations. Trans-as-method enables us to analyze the what, how, and why of gender practices. 

     Trans studies can, therefore, deconstruct the toxic formulations of the who of identity categories that raise questions about unspoken assumptions about “categorical membership.”