“It’s Survival Mode”: Exploring How an Indigenous Trans* Student of Color (Per)Forms Identity While Transgressing Space

• In Event: Learnings About Queer and Trans Issues Across Educational Setting

Abstract

Trans* collegians navigate a variety of tensions based on their interconnecting social identities. Frequently, identity is understood as static; a student who identifies as trans* might wrongly be considered to always be openly “trans*” in every facet of their life. Trans* collegians, however, move between many spaces in their daily lives. How individuals make sense of their identities is impacted by the ways they perceive, conceive, and inhabit spaces, as well as their mobility between spaces. Using theoretical understandings of space and mobility from anthropology and geography studies, this qualitative study explores how experiences with space impact how trans* collegians (per)form their social identities. Findings contribute to discourse on disrupting innate racism, classism, and transphobia in higher education.

Author

• Justin Andrew Gutzwa, University of California - Los Angeles