CFP: The Trans* Research Association of Ireland’s First Annual Symposium

Call for Papers, Other Conferences

October 31-November 1
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin

Submissions Due: 10 July by 5pm GMT

Keynote Speaker: Professor Hil Malatino (Penn State)

This interdisciplinarity symposium aims to forge connections between trans theory internationally and Irish iterations thereof.  Ireland occupies a particular space in the context of transness. While Ireland has meaningful gender recognition legislation based on the principle of self-declaration, Ireland also has the most inaccessible gender-affirming healthcare in Europe, with waitlists of over 10 years for adults and no service provision for young people and children. In response, many Irish trans people DIY their healthcare and foster vital, generative, and even exciting community responses to the deeply political gatekeeping organised by the Irish State. Additionally, Ireland’s gender and sexual politics exist in the aftermath of British colonial rule and have been shaped by the enmeshment between the Irish State and the Catholic Church. Moreover, like many trans people throughout the world, Irish trans people continue to attempt to negotiate their lifeworlds in response to an increasingly hostile socio-political landscape defined by apathy and neoliberalism.

This symposium invites scholars to consider transness in an Irish context and beyond, looking both forward to a new, queerer future and back at the pre-existing but sometimes unexcavated narratives of trans (Irish) pasts. It suggests using typical concerns of Irish studies – including heritage, the family, the Anthropocene, and mythology – as lenses through which to understand, analyse, and discuss transness. It asks how we can account for transness and trans theory outside of pre-existing dominant strands of research and creative practices. It invites scholars who do not principally deal with Ireland in their work to enter a conversation with those who do, in order to create an expansive web of trans research. It will conclude with a keynote talk from Professor Hil Malatino.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Trans theory abroad and trans theory in Ireland
  • Trans theory beyond dominant strands
  • Methodological approaches to the study of international transness
  • Trans readings of established canons
  • Trans ‘canon’, trans poetics, and trans composition
  • Intersectional approaches to trans studies and other fields of study
  • The role of institutions in shaping transness and gender
  • DIY healthcare practices; forms of underground community and solidarity
  • Transness and neoliberalism
  • Colonial legacies of gender
  • Creative work engaging with transness
  • Non-Western gender and/or ‘third gender’ practices

We invite 300-word abstracts for both virtual and in-person papers/presentations. Proposals from practitioners and community members as well as traditional academic researchers are very welcome. Please apply here and direct any queries to Taylor Follett at transreasearchireland@gmail.com. More information about TRAI can be found here.

Submission deadline is 10 July. Notifications regarding acceptances will be sent out at the end of July & beginning of August.