Decolonizing Trans/Gender Studies? Teaching Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Times of the Rise of the Global Right

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that a decolonial perspective on gender means con-ceptualizing it as always already trans. Theobject ofinvestigation is genderas a category andgender studies as a field of knowledge. To discuss what decolonizing trans/gender studies in Europe could mean, theauthoraimsto bringdifferent strands together that have been held apart sofar: resistance against global attacks on gender studies, resistance against transphobic feminism, and the “decolonising the curriculum” movement in the United Kingdom. A critical focus on Eurocentric knowledge and truth claims means to define Europe as a complex set of geopolitical, historical, and epistemologicalprocessesandnotjustasaneutrallocation.AtBritishuniversities,amostlystudent-led movement has started to emerge that fights for decolonizing higher education. This movement is inspired by transnational student movements like Rhodes/Fees Must Fall in South Africa and calls for challenging racist, colonialist, nationalist, and neoliberal paradigms in knowledge production by addressing both issues of epistemology and access to higher education. Applying central political claimsofthe“decolonisingthecurriculum”movement,theauthorexplorespotentialsandchallenges of the task of decolonizing trans/gender studies in Europe and the global North. The author’s intervention opensup a discussionon howto conceptualize knowledgeontransgenderwith a central focus on decolonial and transnational perspectives. Teaching Gender, Race, Sexuality: Reflections on Feminist Pedagogy.