Black Trans Futurities: Political Imaginaries in the Academy and the Arts

Convened by Sa Whitley and Aaron Mallory, two black queer feminist scholars in ASU School of Social Transformation and the Women & Gender Studies program, Black Trans Futurities: Political Imaginaries in the Academy and the Arts is a symposium that brings together scholars, artists and local community members to reflect on the field of Black Trans Studies and imagine its future. 

Over 2 days, Black Trans Futurities will include workshop sessions, a keynote panel, a black trans* poetics salon in downtown Phoenix, turn-ups and freedom dreaming in the Phoenix Metro Area. 

Keynote speakers: 

Che Gossett - Associate Director of the Center for Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at University of Pennsylvania. 

K. Marshall Green - Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware. 

LaVelle Ridley - Assistant Professor of Queer/Trans* Studies in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University. 

SA Smythe - Assistant Professor of Black Studies and the Archive at the Faculty of Information and an affiliate faculty member of the Women & Gender Studies Institute at University of Toronto. 

This symposium is co-sponsored by ASU Humanities Institute, the Queer X Humanities Initiative and the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences.