Symposium on Critical Trans Studies

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM: PANEL 1: TRANS BEFORE THE "MODERN"

Moderator: Simone Stirner
Panelists: Jessie deGrado, Dorothy Kim, 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


1:30 - 3:30 PM: PANEL 2: TRANS EMBODIMENT IN MODERNITY

Moderator: Sheer Ganor
Panelists: Rafael Balling, Gil Engelstein, and Shira Schwartz 

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, tensions between trans and Jewish identities, and the challenges that communities face in light of unprecedented attacks on trans people.


4:30 - 6:30 PM: PANEL 3: QUEER THEORY

Moderator: Rovel Sequiera
Panelists: Adi Saleem and Amal Ziv

Co-Sponsors:
Women's & Gender Studies, American Culture, Comparative Literature, Wayne State University Press