ABSTRACT
Debates about what and whom constitutes the trans subject is a central refrain in the field of trans studies. In this chapter, we take up a series of interrelated questions: What kinds of subjects have been, and continue to be, hailed by trans theory? Who speaks in the name of trans theory and, by extension, whose bodies are invisiblized or made disposable by contemporary articulations of “trans”? Highlighting the importance of race and racialization, transnational movement, and state-surveillance, we attend to the complex processes which continue to assign value to some lives while marking others for violence or exclusion. In light of ongoing artistic, creative, and activist interventions, we argue that the most persistent challenge for the trans canon is to re-envision not just the process of knowledge-making but the stakes of trans intelligibility.
