ABSTRACT
“Gender” and “transnationalism,” acting both as fields of study and tools of analysis, have shifted in their meanings and methodological approaches in interrelated ways. Accordingly, this chapter illustrates benefits of linking “gender” and “transnationalism” in scholarship. To begin, the chapter reviews how each term has been employed as a keyword in multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary cultural studies. The essay then highlights interpretive trends that both Gender Studies and research on transnationalism are embracing, such as resisting binaries, complicating overgeneralizations, honoring intersectionality, and emphasizing fluidity in social processes and spaces. To illustrate, the chapter surveys notable projects linking “gender” and “transnationalism” in their research designs from the outset, including recent studies of gendered migration, of border-crossing social movements with highly gendered features, and of globalized social media promoting gender-related affiliative groups. Looking ahead, the essay calls for such approaches as analysing how gendered individuals living in particular locations are impacted by transnationalism’s reach into their homeplaces, or how those same individuals can strategically access transnational resources to reshape gendered identities and related social norms.
