Following the Money: From the Clinic to the University

Date
Feb 8, 2024, 12:00 pm1:20 pm
Location
Palmer House, Princeton, NJ 08544,
Audience
Open to the public

Speaker

Details

Event Description
In this talk, I argue that the most significant institutional shift in trans studies, from university gender clinic to liberal arts program, entailed two necessary recalibrations: first, in recognition of who was qualified to teach; and second, a broader, seismic shift in what pedagogy itself might mean for the field.

Drawing on John Money’s archives at Johns Hopkins and at the Kinsey Institute, I trace the history of gender clinics in the United States to their closures, and the founding of trans studies as a humanist, liberal arts project. This talk explores how trans gender became institutionalized—first as a medical field, then as an interdisciplinary humanist one—and to what ends. Finally, I trace how the shift from gender clinic to humanities program impacted the way trans narratives were received and address the role of trans studies in the university today.