Susan Stryker for Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept

'Whenever Susan Stryker speaks, I listen.' Torry Peters, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Detransition, Baby

'Reading Susan Stryker, we are gloriously transformed.' Jules Gill-Peterson, author of A Short History of Trans Misogyny

It is our great pleasure to welcome award-winning historian and filmmaker Susan Stryker to Bath this autumn in celebration of Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept!

Gender is one of the most contested topics of our age, as ideologies are weaponised by the far right and real trans lives are targeted. But what are we talking about when we talk about gender? What are the origins of the concept itself, and where might it take us in the future? Rooted in decades of deep research and first-hand experience, Susan Stryker's sharp-eyed analysis invites us into her lifelong quest to uncover what gender means and does.

From nineteenth-century phrenology to present-day anti-trans conspiracies to examples from her lifetime as an agenda setting historian, filmmaker and activist, Stryker finds surprising places to tune into the origins, idiosyncrasies and generative possibilities of the gender concept.

Susan Stryker is an award-winning historian and filmmaker whose work has shaped conversation on gender and feminism for decades. She holds a visiting Professorship at Stanford University and is based in San Francisco. Previous works include When Monsters Speak, Transgender History, Gay by the Bay and the Emmy Award-winning documentary Screaming Queens.