Scholars from around the nation came to Cornell March 6-8 for TransRhetorics, a conference celebrating diverse interdisciplinary work in transgender studies and new rhetorical approaches in representations of transgender lives.

Twenty-one scholars presented their work from disciplines including sociology, law and philosophy. The conference was organized to introduce new interdisciplinary scholarship in transgender studies and to mark a formal name change for Cornell's Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Program (LGBT studies).

"Transgender is nothing new," said Masha Raskolnikov, professor of English and director of LGBT studies. "[We are] not examining a sexy new field. It can be a way of really questioning the assumptions we all hold about sex and gender."

Raskolnikov convened the conference along with Seth Pardo, a graduate student in human ecology. In her opening remarks, she said that when the name change was suggested, a number of people, mostly students, demanded "that more programming be put in place in order to justify, support and celebrate the name change." She also organized a transgender class last fall that attracted a diverse student enrollment from across the university.

"In a time of technological and scientific advancement where people can live as the other sex and are making that choice, we're talking about the availability of medical care, and the legality of changing an aspect of identity," Raskolnikov said. "The reality is that now there is an increasing awareness that the medical technology is there for those who need to live this life that was difficult to achieve a generation ago."

During the opening panel March 6, attendees crowded into 258 Goldwin Smith Hall to hear talks on legal gender classification in court cases, history and the future of gender, and archiving transgender materials. Other topics addressed at the three-day event included gender and societal recognition; trans-corporeality, heteronormativity and whiteness; disability, gender and race in transgender legal claims; Nietzsche, the transgender movement and freedom; identity politics and transphobia; and gender sovereignty. Panelists included scholars, performers and activists.

The conference featured two keynote speakers. Cornell Law alumnus Shannon Minter, J.D. '93, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a transgendered male, spoke March 7 on "Why Gender Theory Should Not Guide Transgender Advocacy," and independent filmmaker and historian Susan Stryker of Indiana University showed rare film clips during her March 6 talk on the famous 1950s transsexual Christine Jorgensen in the post-colonial Philippines.

Conference events were well attended, Raskolnikov said, attracting from 40 to 100 people to every panel. "There were a lot of community members, especially young people, interested in the transgender social movement aspects of the conference," she said.

The conference also hosted a multimedia spoken-word and rap performance in Lewis Auditorium, and screenings of "Girl Inside" and "Red Without Blue," two documentary films recently acquired for the Human Sexuality Collection in Kroch Library.