“I am jeopardizing everyone wherever I go”: Toward a Trans* History of the Holocaust.
“I am jeopardizing everyone wherever I go”: Toward a Trans* History of the Holocaust.
This presentation bridges the fields of Holocaust studies and transgender studies to examine the role of gender non-conformity during the Third Reich and Shoah. It explores how a trans* reading of the sources can expand ways of thinking about sexuality, emotions, survival, resilience, and power in the context of the Holocaust.
What can a focus on gendered boundary crossing reveal about how logics of power function to reinforce multiple and often different definitions of normalcy? How do stigmatized notions of gender and sexuality work to further ostracize Jews in these instances? This work maintains that trans* analysis as a theoretical model promises to reveal the gradation of gendered experiences that are integral to Holocaust history.
This program is offered in partnership with Congregation Kol Ami. Zoom registration is available at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PiCs1tLiTsa9zg4fNb6chA.
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Noë L. Bourdeau (he/him) is a doctoral student of history living and working on the traditional, unceded territories of the Algonquin Nation at Carleton University. His research focuses on trans* life and the role of gender mutability during the Third Reich and Shoah. Noë is interested in thinking with and beyond identity when considering how sexuality, emotions, agency, and power appear in Holocaust memory and (re)presentation and has recently spent time as a visiting fellow with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.