Introduction
Welcome to Trans* Journeys – Illustrated Essays!
This collection of essays is developed by students in CSIS 301 – Intro to Trans Studies at the University of British Columbia – Vancouver Campus. These essays are the outputs of a course assignment using a set of teaching and learning practices that involve open educational resources and students-as-creators, a practice know as open pedagogy.
The CSIS 301 – Intro to Trans Studies course introduces students to field of Trans* Studies through various conceptual and theoretical frameworks. It explores how race, citizenship, gender, sexuality, culture and dis/ability are materially and socially constructed together to give meaning to the category trans. (Trans: transgender, transsexual, gender variant and other articulations.). This collection of essays is a culmination of the students learning throughout the course and their effort to openly share what they have learned in a visual and textual format.
Topics Covered
The collection of essays is divided into sub-sections covered a range of topics. The following outlines the topic and subjects covered:
- Visibility, Representation & Cultural Intelligibility –
- Doing Gender –
- Joy as Resistance/Sexuality –
- Normativities/Phobias –
- Transnational Perspectives & Decolonizing Trans* –
- Life Stages/Institutions –
Contributors
This collection of essays is a “point-in-time” in the process of students learning, understanding, and engage with complex topics of gender and sexuality identity.
Student contributors signed an author agreement for their work to be shared openly online. Names and identities are protected using pseudonyms; however, positionality statements have been included in many of the chapters to better understand the context and lenses from which the authors engage with the material and construct their essays.
