Towards a Postsecular Trans Studies

There is a strange paradox at the center of contemporary transphobia, which regularly justifies its political project by invoking two apparently incompatible claims: first, that transition constitutes a unique threat to religion; and secondly, the assertion that “trans activism” or “gender ideology” is itself a kind of religion. This talk asks what this double-bind means for scholarship in the field of trans studies, which has historically committed itself to secularism. Offering an overview of the state of the field and the new directions of its most significant work, I propose that trans studies should embrace a postsecular turn. 

Colby Gordon is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Bryn Mawr College. With Simone Chess and Will Fisher, he coedited the first collected volume on the topic of trans studies in early modern literature for the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. His book, Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2024. He is currently working on two books, one entitled The Trans Debate and the Jewish Question and another called The Cis Soul.

This lecture is part of a collaboration with the Institute for English and American Studies (IEAS) of the Goethe University Frankfurt.