ABSTRACT
The last set of arrival and departures revolves around notions of kinship networks. Although the phrase itself may evoke images of blood relatives or family of origin, many scholars have extended notions of kinship beyond this limited understanding. In particular, Rubin (2011) noted that anthropologists have long been exploring kinship as a phenomenon that transcends one’s bloodline: “A kinship system is not a list of biological relatives. It is a system of categories and statuses which often contradict actual genetic relationships. There are dozens of examples in which socially defined kinship statuses take precedence over biology” (p. 41). Weston (1991) put this nonbiological notion of kinship to work in gay and lesbian populations, suggesting that “gone are the days when embracing a lesbian or gay identity seemed to require a renunciation of kinship” (pp. 40–41). Weston’s ethnographic study stands as one of the first empirical analyses of the creation and maintenance of kinship networks among queer populations, specifically the gay and lesbian communities in San Francisco during the late 1980s. Although Weston’s study did not explicitly include trans* people, my study participants and I found that the notion of kinship, and the development and maintenance of kinship networks, was an important factor for successfully navigating the gender-dichotomous college environment. This development is unique in its own right as it is the first study in the field of higher education to specifically explore notions of community, coalition, and kinship-building exclusively with trans* students. To date, only one other article has been written that focuses on notions of trans* kinship as a strategy for promoting college student success (Nicolazzo, Pitcher, Renn, & Woodford, in press). Furthermore, although Carmel, Hopwood, and dickey (2014) wrote, “Those of us [trans* people] who build connections to supportive community do better” (p. 325), they neither cited literature to support this claim nor explained what they meant by the phrase “do better.” Therefore, this chapter regarding trans* kinship-building could be foundational when thinking about how trans* students build, maintain, and leverage kinship networks to navigate campuses that remain far-fromwelcoming spaces for them.
