Jesse Daniel Ames Lecture

Transgenderism & Citizenship: A Dialogue between Eli Clare and Matt Richardson

24 March 2009, 4-5:30 p.m.

McCombs Center Ballrooms

Refreshments will be served after the lecture.

Matt Richardson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English with affiliation with the Center for African and African American Studies and the Center for Gender and Women's Studies at UT Austin.  Matt's research interests include African American and Black British Cultural Studies, Queer Theory, Feminist Studies and Film Studies.  Matt Richardson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies and a Designated Emphasis in Gender and Women's Studies.  Some of Matt's most recent publications include "No More Secrets, No More Lies: Compulsory Heterosexuality and African American History," in the Journal of Women's History and two co-written articles in the anthology That's Revolting: Resisting Queer Assimilation. "Restroom Revolutionaries" is about organizing for trans and genderqueer restrooms on college campuses and "Is Gay Marriage Racist" is about Blackness and gay marriage. Matt recently participated in a roundtable published in the March 2008 issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, "Stepping Back, Looking Outward: Situating Transgender Activism and Transgender Studies—Kris Hayashi, Matt Richardson, and Susan Stryker Frame the Movement." Matt is also a part of an upcoming book on Black Sexuality with a co-authored article with Enoch Page of UMass Amherst, "On the Fear of Small Numbers: A 21st Century Prolegomenon of the U. S. Black Transgender Experience."

White, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli Clare has a B.A. in Women's Studies, a M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and most importantly a penchant for rabble-rousing. Among other pursuits, he has walked across the United States for peace, coordinated a rape prevention program, and helped organize the first-ever Queerness and Disability Conference. He has spoken all over the United States at conferences, community events, and colleges about disability, queer and trans identities, and social justice. Eli is the author of a book of essays Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation and a collection of poetry The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion.

The 2009 Jessie Daniel Ames lecture is sponsored by the Feminist Studies Program and the Fleming Lecture Fund.