Abstract
I wish to open with how this project was catalysed. In 2018 I was invited to review a collection on trans youth edited by Heather Brunskell-Evans and Michele Moore. While the review did not occur, the trans-antagonistic content proved inspirational, and drove what became this collection. My first thanks go to my colleagues at the Open University – Ev Callahan, my fantastic fellow fellow, Richard Holti, for being an exceptionally supportive project lead, and Jo Brewis for invaluable support of this project. I would also like to thank the various peer reviewers who generously gave of their time and expertise to assist us and the contributors to this collection. Thank you to Steve Brown for providing valuable information, resources, and flexibility as editor of the Sociological Review Monograph Series. I’m also really grateful to everyone who contributed to our related project workshop in December 2019, with special gratitude to CN Lester for the deeper friendship and music making since then! My most heartfelt thanks go towards Ruth and Sonja, without whom this collection would not have happened. A more enriching, productive, and enjoyable collaboration I cannot imagine, and I am profoundly humbled to count such wonderful people as my dear friends.
I wish to thank my colleagues at the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, and especially my mentors, Sarah Chan and Sarah Cunningham-Burley, for supporting my work even during my more provocative moments, which has allowed me to do my part in bringing together this wonderful collection. I am also entirely indebted to all the authors who have contributed their work, and to my two co-editors without whom this book would, of course, never have even been conceptualised let alone materialised.
Thanks to my former colleagues at the School of Sociology and Social Policy and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Leeds, where I did the majority of my work on this project. I am especially grateful to Karen Throsby for her mentoring and steadfast commitment to feminist scholarship, Sally Hines for being an amazing PI and providing me with the time and space to work on my own projects, and Karen Cuthbert for our mutual venting sessions. I am also deeply thankful to Bobby S. Sayyid and Jodie Dyson for taking the harassment that I and others faced as trans studies scholars incredibly seriously, and for committing the School to fully supporting our research.
Thanks must go too to Kirsty Lohman, whose determined support I am always grateful for, and Sophie Wilson, whose good humour, fine company, and excellent taste in BreadTube helped me through many hours of bashing away at my laptop in our flat.
I am incredibly honoured and humbled by the range of contributions we have received for this collection. Thank you to all the authors, to my co-editors Sonja and Ben, and to every trans feminist activist and scholar who has inspired us to fight for a better world. Here’s to a future where this book is no longer necessary or relevant.