What is the future of gender? The iconic Susan Stryker joins us for a live recording to see where this question might lead us and speak about how she investigated it in her new book Changing Gender. Susan explains why gender is in fact a Humanities problem, not a science problem, and how thinking about animacy, grammar and psychedelics might get us closer to understanding the work that gender does as a concept. If you’re into trans rights and a bit of a grammar nerd, this will be your dream episode.   References: Susan Stryker’s Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept (Serpent’s Tail, 2026) Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix” Screaming Queens Susan Stryker’s Transgender History New House Art Space Blossom LGBT Katherine Hubbard David Griffiths Clare Butler Papermoon Books Whitechapel Gallery Heather Love Lena Mattheis’ Queer Forms and Pronouns (Oxford University Press, 2026) Talia Mae Bettcher  Ursula K. (Kroeber) Le Guin Alfred Kroeber Franz Boas Greville Corbett Surrey Morphology Group James Anderson’s “Grammatical Disquisitions” (1792) David Ricardo Justus Liebig Karl Marx Mel Y. Chen’s Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect George Lakoff’s Metaphors We Live By Ornette Coleman Maria Lugones Pod Save the UK Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (1966) Stonewall Riots (1969)   Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: -      What does Susan say about autobiographical writing in her work? Why is this important? -      Susan introduces Talia Bettcher’s WTF concept. What does this mean to you? Please also look up Bettcher’s definition and/or listen to our Queer Lit episode with Bettcher. -      What does grammar have to do with gender? -      How does animacy impact language and pronoun use? -      Susan uses the example of a river to explain how our cosmologies and worldviews shape the way we use words and perceive categories. Can you think of another example of this? -      What do you think about the future of gender as a concept?    

Pod Save the UK · Episode

Susan Stryker's Changing Gender is at pains not to dumb down for what’s closer to a mass audience than most of what the author writes.

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