Transmisogyny in the Colonial Archive

Intersec+ions is an interdisciplinary network based in Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy. We are a non-hierarchical, student-led group, providing a safe space for exploring issues relating to identity, sexuality, race, and gender, within a transnational and intersectional context. We host a diverse range of events, and publish an international, peer-reviewed academic journal. In all of our work, we seek to explore the representation and construction of identity, sexuality, race, and gender in social and cultural texts, discourses, practices, and subjectivities. We are committed to exploring the issues and structures affecting marginalised sections of society. We hope to stimulate rigorous, engaging, and transnational thought and debate within art, culture, and, more broadly, within society, as a means of rebalancing unequally tilted global hierarchies.

Intersec+ions

Join us for a fascinating paper by Jamey Jesperson

Traces of trans pasts are scattered all throughout the colonial archive. In the “Americas,” the existence of Indigenous trans femininity, in particular, can be evidenced in the diaries of Spanish conquistadors as early as the sixteenth century. While early colonial representations of trans femininity span various religious, linguistic, and imperial contexts, all sources share one harrowing thing in common: they are underpinned by a desire for trans feminine death. To ‘re-member’—á la Saylesh Wesley—trans feminine pasts in the colonial archive, this seminar traces manifestations of transmisogyny throughout the sodomy trials of colonial México (1604-1765) and the Catholic missionization of California (1769-1821). In recognition that over eighty-five percent of all trans murders today target trans women of colour in the Western Hemisphere, this seminar asks, with urgency: What is the relationship between transmisogyny and the colonisation of the Americas? If transmisogyny has a colonial history, what does this say about its inherent racial nature? And, if settler colonialism is indeed a ‘structure’ not an ‘event,’ how may trans feminine elimination be built into our world today? By unearthing this colonial history of transmisogyny, historians can elevate the long-erased trans feminine historical subject, unveil the structures of her death, and, most importantly, illuminate the nature and longevity of her survivance in both colonial past and colonial present.BiographyJamey Jesperson is a PhD student in History &amp; CSPT at the University of Victoria specializing in trans histories amidst conquest and settlement along the North American west coast. In 2022, her MA Queer History thesis from Goldsmiths was awarded “best Masters dissertation in the UK” by the Royal Historical Society. Building on previous study of transmisogyny under the Spanish empire in México and California, Jamey’s dissertation will examine the British settler colonial suppression of trans Indigenous traditions in the Pacific Northwest between contact (1795) and confederation (1871).A﻿bout Intersec+ionsIntersec+ions is a research network based in Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy (ENCAP). We are interdisciplinary, trans-inclusive, and student-led. Each year, we organise an online seminar series, providing a safe space for academics, PGRs, and ECRS to explore themes related to gender, sexuality, race, (dis)ability, neurodiversity, and more – all within a transnational and intersectional context. We also publish a peer-reviewed academic journal (IPICS). In all of our work, we seek to explore the representation and construction of identity, sexuality, and gender in social and cultural texts, discourses, practices, and subjectivities.

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Transmisogyny in the Colonial Archive

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Transmisogyny in the Colonial Archive

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