The Center for Applied Transgender Studies is proud to host the third event in its 2024 Distinguished Lecture Series. Events in the series feature world-leading transgender scholars discussing their own original research with a broad audience of scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and interested laypersons. These events are virtual, free to attend, and open to the public.

This lecture will be given by Christoph Hanssmann, and will celebrate the publication of his recent book Care without Pathology How Trans- Health Activists Are Changing Medicine (University of Minnesota Press, 2023). The event will also include a moderated discussion with CATS Executive Director TJ Billard.

Trans depathologization has often centered around the claim, “we’re not sick.” However, activists’ efforts to push back against psychiatric diagnoses are increasingly being identified as ableist in their work to distinguish trans wellness and sanity from “true” forms of mental pathology. Given these critiques, what’s useful now about thinking with depathologization? Rather than focusing solely on disavowals of disability, this talk examines depathologization as a more expansive set of phenomena. Drawing on ethnographic and document-based research in New York City and Buenos Aires between 2012-2018, it analyzes varying strands of trans depathologization activism, their specific objectives, and their dispersed effects.

The talk will take place from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Central Standard Time.

To register for the lecture, visit: https://cats.events/hanssmann