Why trans history?

Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh theorized a concept called a radical archive, this approach to archiving conceptualizes it in part as, “Archiving as a radical practice….moments or contexts in which archiving in itself becomes a radical act; and considerations of how archives can be active in the present.”

This concept of history as a radical act, historians as radical actors, and how history can be used in the present were foremost in my mind when choosing this topic. Trans and queer history remain an area that is largely unwritten. Both my research for this topic and for trans and queer history, in general, came up with very few historians or works to draw on. Given the continued marginalization trans and queer folks face, as our sheer existence continues to be contested it is no surprise that there is still so much work to be done.

Finally, I have found within the public historical consciousness and among even conversations I’ve had with people, there is a tendency to improperly historicize queer and Tran’s people. Oftentimes it is seen as some modern phenomena that emerged whole cloth 30 years ago. Thus, in doing this project I hope to fight against this modernist and incorrect view of Trans and queer identities being a modern occurrence, as opposed to the oftentimes erased queerness in history.