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Notícies :: sexualitats |
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Transsexual and transgender bodies: technological and socio-cultural distinctions between transgender and transsexual experience and meaning
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per un@ |
13 des 2007
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CALL FOR PAPERS
First World Forum of Sociology: Sociological Research and Public Debate
Barcelona, Spain, September 5-8, 2008 (http://www.isa-sociology.org/barcelona_2008/) |
WORKING GROUP: The Body in the Social Sciences (http://www.isa-sociology.org/wg03.htm)
2008 BARCELONA FOCUS: Mapping the Body: The bodily factor in memory and social action
(http://www.isa-sociology.org/barcelona_2008/wg/wg03.htm)
SESSION TITLE: Transsexual and transgender bodies: technological and socio-cultural distinctions between transgender and transsexual experience and meaning making
ORGANIZER: Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, American University, USA
Transgender and transsexual experiences continue to be identified independently from each other based on embodiment, access to technological (mainly, but not exclusively, surgical) procedures, and readings of ‘transgender’ (as unsettling gender) and ‘transsexual’ (as reaffirming of a gender) difference. At the same time, transsexuality as a medical-psychiatric defined experience has been less pathologized, and as transgender has evolved from simply being about ‘gender bending’ and into a self-identification as well, both of these moves are paving the way for a closer relationship between transgender and transsexual in sociological and social theorizing.
Of course, transgender and transsexual do not mean the same to everyone in the same country, or even within the same cities. Regionally and globally, ‘trans’ populations, their embodied experiences, and the meaning their bodies and experiences are given in various socio-cultural settings, are varied. Moreover, these terms do not hold the same currency in all parts of the globe, with one term being more prevalent than another, or subsumed within the other. How social scientists study these experiences, or map the relationship of trans bodies to their socio-cultural contexts, is but an emergent area of inquiry in our field.
This panel seeks to illustrate the various relations of these terms (transgender and transsexual) to the local, regional, and global contexts. Empirical and theoretical work that links the body to trans experiences is appropriate for this session. Technological advancements as related to the topic of trans bodies are welcomed, as well as local illustrations of tensions between technologies and bodies that are socially produced (whether recognized or not) as trans. Panelists are encouraged to present in the language that best represents the knowledge about transgender and transsexual studies in their countries—if language is an element that influences the negotiations between the global understandings of trans-bodied and the local interpretations of such experiences.
ABSTRACTS DUE: DECEMBER 31, 2007
ACCEPTED PAPERS DUE: JANUARY 31, 2008
Please contact Salvador Vidal-Ortiz at vidalort ARROBA american.edu for questions about the session. |
This work is in the public domain |
