Body/Bodies Series Lecture: “Chemical Control: Hormones, Transgender Studies, and Other Transitions” by Toby Beauchamp

• Event Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013
• Time: 4:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk

This talk uses the critical lens of transgender studies to examine recent narratives of hormonal "deficiency" that, on the surface, may appear unrelated to the category of transgender. Showing how this purportedly new health concern is animated by longer histories of hormones as substances used to both identify and correct unruly bodies, I take up two major examples: first, the central role of hormones in metabolic syndrome, repeatedly referenced in medical studies as "the main threat for public health in the 21st century," and second, the use of synthetic testosterone by active duty military personnel and by physicians exploring new treatments for Gulf War Syndrome. The talk proposes that transgender studies has something to offer and something to gain from looking closely at the use of hormones in these contexts, even in the absence of any explicitly transgender subjects.

Toby Beauchamp is assistant professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Oklahoma State University. He holds a doctorate in Cultural Studies from the University of California, Davis and was a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled "Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices".

The Body/Bodies Series is co-organized and -sponsored by IPRH and the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, with co-sponsorship by the Spurlock Museum.