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?    

Karen. Negative Nancy. Debbie Downer. Nervous Nellie. Chatty Cathy. Plain Jane. We love to take common female names and turn them into to negative stereotypes. There are a few male examples, but not to the same extent. We disproportionately stereotype women negatively. Am I missing any for men or women? Let me know in the comments!#feminism #languageandculture #genderedlanguage #sexism

Experts urge use of clear, descriptive terms to make wine more accessible and welcoming to diverse consumers

The final episode of the Queer Forms and Pronouns series got a bit more personal than I expected. The incredible Teagan Bradway and I speak about misgendering ourselves, giving the gift of language to our loved ones and why not just the function but also the beauty of gender-nonconformity pronouns is politically and personally significant. We speak about my anxieties about it pronouns and how this plays out in different genres from speculative fiction to memoir. Teagan’s insights into narrative agency and pronominal shifts are incredibly helpful in taking one last deep dive into the world of pronouns. This conversation is part of a miniseries that accompanies my book Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026). I hope you like hearing more from your host, but not to worry: we will be back to our usual format after this one.   References: Bradway, Teagan. "Queer Narrative Theory and the Relationality of Form." PMLA 136.5 (2021): 711-727. Bradway, Teagan, and Elizabeth Freeman, eds. Queer Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging, Form. Duke University Press, 2022. Bradway, Teagan. "Introduction: Queer Metarelationality." differences 35.3 (2024): 1-13. Bradway, Teagan. "Queer Formalism." The Palgrave Handbook of Feminist, Queer and Trans* Narrative Studies. Palgrave, 2025. 95-109. https://teaganbradway.com/ Les Feinberg Torrey Peters’ Stag Dance Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer Diane Watt Jack Halberstam Dana Luciano Mel Y. Chen Spivak pronouns (E/em/eir) Isaac Fellman Andrea Gibson Hekanaho, Laura. "A thematic analysis of attitudes towards English nonbinary pronouns." Journal of Language and Sexuality 11.2 (2022): 190-216. Mattheis, Lena. "Nonbinary Narration." The Palgrave Handbook of Feminist, Queer and Trans* Narrative Studies. Palgrave, 2025. 25-39. Vera Nuenning Corinna Assmann     Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: -      What does narrative agency have to do with pronouns? How might narrative point of view affect pronouns? -      Why do we discuss genre? What could the implications of discussing pronouns in speculative fiction be? -      How can ‘it’ pronouns allow us to think about gender, personhood and humanness? -      What are Spivak pronouns? You may want to look this up as we only mention them very briefly. -      What do Lena and Teagan think about mispronouning? -      Why do we speak about pronouns as a gift that is not always easy to give? How do you feel about sharing your pronouns or learning someone else’s?  

It was an incredible honour to have THE Susan Stryker join me for a chat about ambiguous pronouns, trans literature and linguistic creativity. Susan’s wealth of knowledge on pronouns across languages and literary history was incredibly enriching and allowed me to speak about some of my favourite examples of ambiguous pronoun use in literature. This conversation is part of a miniseries that accompanies my book Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026). I hope you like hearing more from your host, but not to worry: we will be back to our usual format in just a few weeks.   References: Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix” Susan Stryker’s Transgender History Susan Stryker, Stephen Wittle, Aren Aizura (eds) The Transgender Studies Reader Susan Stryker’s Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept (August 2026) Sara Taylor’s The Lauras Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s The Sleeping Hermaphrodite (1620) Teagan Bradway Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer (2019) Lal Zimman Rivers Solomon Aphra Behn’s “To The Fair Clorinda” and “The Widow Ranter” Thomas(ine) Hall Nathaniel Bacon Mel Y. Chen Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl Andrea Gibson’s “Your Life”   Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: -      Which pronouns are ambiguous when it comes to gender in English? Which ones are ambiguous in your first or favourite language? -      What creates ambiguity when we use pronouns? How might this ambiguity be productive? -      Susan explains why gendered pronouns in English function in an unusual way compared to other languages. What is something new you learned about this? -      We speak about why literature can teach us something about pronoun use that we might overlook when focusing on grammar. What is that? -      Can you name one of the examples of ambiguous pronoun use in literature we discuss?