On October 11th, 2023, WGSS and the LGBTQ+ Center co-sponsored WSU’s annual InQueery Symposium, providing undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including education, history, prevention science, and multimedia journalism, with an opportunity to share their scholarship with others interested in feminist and queer studies. InQueery 2023, titled “After the Tipping Point: Trans Histories and Archives,” invited creative and innovative interpretations of who and what has been previously marked and categorically recorded as (gender) deviant and nonnormative, especially in light of the onslaught of transphobic and queerphobic legislation being proposed and enacted across the United States.
During this virtual symposium, ten undergraduate and graduate students presented their scholarship during three featured panels: Unaffirmed Adolescence: Discriminatory Practices Against Trans Youth; Trans Resilience: Art as Activism; and Institutional Violences and the Trans Body. Following the student panels, InQueery attendees welcomed keynote speaker Dr. Hil Malatino, associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Malatino’s presentation, “Pure Potential: Reed Erickson and the Trans Twentieth Century,” detailed his archival work on the complexities surrounding Erickson’s trans activism. Overall, InQueery 2023 was an enriching community event that was attended by 120 students, faculty, and activists from across the WSU system; WSU Vancouver even hosted an InQueery 2023 watch party.