Toward a Critical Trans Politics: An Interview with Dean Spade by Rob Nichols, published in Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action, Number 14, 2012.
Romantic Friendship, Palestine and California
A few recent things to share: Here is a link to a radio interview between me and the brilliant and inspiring activist-scholars Eric Stanley and Reina July about trans politics and prison abolition that took place in January on Romantic Friendship radio. I also want to share this open letter created by activist from a recent LGBTQ delegation to Palestine that I participated in in January. Please sign on! Below is a photo from my trip–a mural on a part of the separation wall. I’m working on creating some writing about my trip to share with photos that will hopefully be posted here soon. Finally, Toshio Meronek recently interviewed Eric Stanley and I about Captive Genders and Normal Life in advance of our trip to speak at UC Davis. You can read Toshio’s article here.
Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement With Everything We’ve Got
Morgan Bassichis, Alex Lee, and I co-authored “Building an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got” in the anthology Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, edited by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith. A Mandarin translation is available here: 全力打造一個以廢除為目標的跨性／酷兒運動).
Learn more about Captive Genders here.
Laws as Tactics
I wrote “Laws as Tactics” published in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in 2011. You can read it here.
Abstract:
This symposium invites us to consider the impact of Judith Butler’s work on legal scholarship in the area of gender and sexuality. I am interested in reflecting particularly on trans politics and law for two reasons. First, because Butler’s work has had such a significant impact on the emergence of the current iteration of trans politics of the 1990s and 2000s. Second, because I believe there is a great deal more that Butler’s work can offer to significant questions facing trans resistance formations as the field of trans legal rights advocacy institutionalizes and as trans legal scholarship engages and responds to that institutionalization. In particular, I am interested in how Butler’s work has provided analytical models for considering the role that norms and normalization play in both disciplinary and biopolitical modes of governance relating to gender. This analysis is essential to understanding the limitations of certain legal rights frameworks for addressing harms created by racialized and gendered systems of meaning and control.
Guernica Interview and Books!
Meaghan Winter recently interviewed me for Guernica, have a look. In other news, I’m very excited that Nat Smith and Eric Stanley’s anthology, Captive Genders: Transembodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex is coming out in August. Finally, I’m happy to report that, working with the editors at South End Press, I’ve finally settled on a title for my forthcoming book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law.
Be Professional!
I wrote “Be Professional!, published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender in 2010 in response to Bob Chang and Adrienne Davis’ article, “Making Up Is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom,” 33 Harv. J. L. & Gender 1 (2010). You can read it here.
Abstract
In 2010, the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender published a series of letters between Adrienne Davis and Bob Chang entitled, “Making Up Is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom,” along with three response pieces by Adele Morrison, Darren Rosenblum and Dean Spade. “Be Professional!” is written in letter form like “Making Up Is Hard to Do” and discusses Spade’s experience becoming and being a trans law professor, as well as broader questions about activism, academia, professionalism and the neo-liberal academy.
Beyond Gay Marriage Podcast
Lisa Dettmer just released her podcast and article critically examining same-sex marriage advocacy. The podcast includes interviews me and many other critics of same-sex marriage advocacy. Thanks to Lisa for the great work!
Click here
Considering Law School?
I wrote up a little summary of some of the things I often tell people who come to me because they are considering law school and want to know if it is a good route to making transformative change. I hope this might be a helpful document for activists considering law school.
New Writing in the Seattle Journal for Social Justice
The Seattle Journal for Social Justice just published a new issue that includes a cluster of articles and art on trans issues. You can read the introduction I wrote for the cluster here.
Here is an interview with advocates working on Medicaid access for trans people in three states.
Here is an article by my colleagues at SRLP about the role of lawyers in trans resistance.
Read all articles in the issue here.
We’re having a symposium featuring several articles from the cluster at Seattle University School of Law on October 20 from lunchtime until evening open to the public and free. Please come!