Critical Trans Studies Symposium

Open to: Everyone

Join the 2024-25 Frankel Institute Fellows for three panels featuring guest scholars from the USA, Canada, and Israel, all exploring various intersections of their respective studies under this year’s theme, “Queer/Trans/Jewish.”

PANEL 1: TRANS BEFORE THE “MODERN” – 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Presented by Jessie deGrado, Dorothy Kim (Brandeis University), Rafe Neis, Max Strassfeld

Panel participants will engage in a conversation on several themes at the intersection of transing, asexuality, and Judaic studies in the premodern era. Questions will include how studying the past can denaturalize modern-contemporary gender categories, how transing as an approach is distinct from contemporary definitions of trans-ness, and how a trans framework can help us problematize the category of modernity itself

PANEL 2: TRANS EMBODIMENT IN MODERNITY – 1:30 – 3:30 PM
Presented by Rafael Balling, Gil Engelstein, and Shira Schwartz (Northwestern University)

This panel explores questions and debates that emerge at the axis of Jewish and trans experiences in the modern world. Reflecting through their research expertise and beyond, speakers will discuss themes including visibility and its discontents, linkages, and tensions between trans and Jewish identities, and the challenges that communities face in light of unprecedented attacks on trans people.

PANEL 3: QUEER THEORY – 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Presented by Bruno Perreau (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Adi Saleem, Simone Stirner, and Amal Ziv

Please RSVP for the conference here: https://forms.gle/LMxfURuR5vaKGAy97