The politics of trans visibility

9th Nordic Trans Studies Conference, December 8-9, 2025, Örebro University

Organizer: Valo Vähäpassi 

Within both activism and research, emancipatory hopes have been attached to the idea of trans visibility. However, visibility can become not only a site of recognition but also a mechanism of regulation – an appeal to dominant norms and institutions that can, under swiftly changing political conditions, revoke previously granted legitimacy or weaponize it against the very individuals it once supported.

As governments and reactionary movements broaden their attacks on gender minorities, trans visibility has become a perilous terrain - visibility can mean surveillance and hostility. For trans studies, and lives, this means new and pressing questions regarding academic freedom and censorship, livability and legal and human rights.

The submissions can think both with and against “paranoid critique” (Sedgwick 1997). From the point of view of “reparative reading” (ibid.), visibility is ambivalent. It can lead to unforeseen effects, whether ‘bad’ or ‘good’. Visibility is multilayered, entailing different potentialities and meanings for the people navigating it. Among other things, it may be counterpublic, fugitive and ephemeral, or networked.

The workshop invites short abstracts (150-300 words) with theoretical, methodological or empirical contributions. The contributors are asked to prepare a paper (15 minutes). We will discuss all the papers together. Non-presenting people are also welcome to the workshop. Please attach a short bio (max 50 words) with your contribution.

References:
Sedgwick, E. K., 1997. Paranoid reading and reparative reading; or, you’re so paranoid, you probably think this introduction is about you. In: Novel gazing: Queer readings in fiction, . Duke University Press, pp. 1-37.

Bio

Valo Vähäpassi holds a PhD in Media Studies. Their PhD project addressed the way affective media practices bring people together around co-articulations of transness and violence. They have published on Christian right, trans activism, user generated reality enforcement, and the intersections of transgender studies and disability studies.