Understanding and Supporting Trans College Students
Public Lectures and Workshop with Author and Professor Dr. Z Nicolazzo
October 24 and 25, 2022
Dr. Z Nicolazzo will engage the campus community in identifying how to listen to, hear, bear witness, and truly be with trans students, faculty, and staff. She will discuss current issues in politics, education as well as trans oppression and trans misogyny during several campus events as part of LGBT History Month.
Dr. Z Nicolazzo (she/her) is an associate professor of Trans* Studies in Education in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. Her first book is titled Trans* In College: Transgender Students’ Strategies for Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Politics of Inclusion (Stylus), with her forthcoming text, Digital Me: Trans Students Exploring Future Possible Selves Online set to come out from Rutgers University Press in December 2022. Her work focuses on discourses of gender in education, transmisogyny as a mode of institutional capture, and grief and loss.
To request disability-related accommodations for these events, please email diversity@illinois.edu. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow for sufficient time to meet your access needs.
Dish It Up/Quench: Dog Whistles and Wedge Politics: The Past, Present, and Future of Anti-Trans Girl Legislation in the U.S.
Monday, October 24, 12–1 p.m.
Women’s Resources Center (616 W. Green St., Suite 202, Champaign)
Trans youth have once again become a focal point for conservative politics, with an especially harsh focus on trans girls and women in schooling environments. In this interactive talk, Dr. Nicolazzo will engage audience members in why this may be the case, why it matters, and how we can all be in solidarity with trans youth. Hosted as part of the Women’s Center Dish It Up and the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center’s Quench lunch series.
Public Lecture: The Kids Are Alright, But Campuses Are Not: Exploring Trans College Student Experiences
Monday, October 24, 7–8 p.m.
1024 Chemistry Annex (601 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana)
In her first book, released in 2017, Dr. Nicolazzo detailed how trans college students navigated college environments that were impediments to success. In this talk, Dr. Nicolazzo will review her past and present scholarship to interrogate how institutions of higher education promote transmisogyny and trans oppression, all while using trans people as pawns to signal institutional goodness and progress. She will end her talk with calls to action for students, faculty, staff, community members, and education itself as a process.
Faculty/Staff Workshop: Being Good Company with Trans Students, Faculty, and Staff
Tuesday, October 25, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Lunch is provided
Picking up on Baxter Magolda’s (2002) conceptualization of being good company, this interactive workshop will engage campus staff in identifying how to listen to, hear, bear witness, and truly be with trans students, faculty, and staff. More than creating accommodations, this workshop will focus on encouraging trans thriving and livability, centering on the gender-expansive worlds trans people want, need, and desire.
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in collaboration with the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center and the Women’s Resources Center. Part of the Campus Culture & Belonging Series.