Undoing Theory: Reflections on The Transgendered Question

and the Limits of Anglo-American Feminist Theory

Viviane Namaste
Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montréal

4-6pm, Wednesday 22 October 2008
Marjorie Oldfield Lecture Room, Edward Ford Building
Fisher Road, University of Sydney | map

This presentation will examine the centrality of the Transgendered Question within Anglo-American feminist theory. For nearly 20 years, transsexual women and transvestites have been axiomatic to the kinds of epistemological questions posed by Anglo-American feminist theorists. Yet the realities and complexities of transsexuals' everyday lives are notably absent within this domain. This presentation reflects on this absence, with a particular concern for the exclusion of labour within feminist conceptions of the body and constitution of gender. If Anglo-American feminist theory remains severely limited to the extent that it ignores everyday women, I conclude with a consideration of some of the conditions necessary for a more critical, activist feminist theory.

With the support of Prof Raewyn Connell, the School of Languages and Cultures and the Faculty of Arts, as well as the Departments of Spanish and Latin American Studies and Gender and Cultural Studies, international feminist scholar-activist, Viviane Namaste, will be in Australia to present a talk exclusively at University of Sydney. This event will attract anyone working at the intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and language, as well as human rights, health and social action research in the School and across the university. For more information, contact Vek Lewis on 9351 4524 or email

Biography

Viviane Namaste is an Associate Professor at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University. She is the author of three books: Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions and Imperialism (Toronto: Women's Press, 2005), C'était du spectacle! L'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal, 1955-1985 (Montréal: McGill-Queen University Press, 2005), andInvisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). In the mid-1990s, she worked to establish community-based health services for transsexuals in Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal. She is involved in activism, research and policy work in relation to the criminalization of prostitution, HIV, prisons, harm reduction, and refugee issues.