alithia zamantakis | Northwestern University (original) (raw)

Papers by alithia zamantakis

AIDS & Behavior, 2023

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While Trans Studies analyzes, critiques, and rethinks the epistemological, ontological, and mater... more While Trans Studies analyzes, critiques, and rethinks the epistemological, ontological, and material mechanisms through gender shapes and is shaped by the social world, few studies in the Sociology of Trans Studies have thoroughly theorized and analyzed what exactly constitutes cis-ness. As such, I ask what constitutes cis-ness vis-à-vis sexuality, and how do the desirability discourse of cisgender-heterosexual men and cisgender-lesbian/bi/queer women enact necropolitical boundaries around Black trans women and trans women of color’s subjectivity? Utilizing semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a sample of 32 predominantly Black, cisgender-heterosexual men and cisgender-lesbian/bi/queer women, in addition to a focus group with four white/white-passing participants, and photo elicitation methodologies, I elucidate how Western ontologies of “body reasoning” (Oyěwùmí 1997) and gender essentialism remain prevalent. I argue that participants constructed trans bodies as surplus to the...

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“The Death of Hetero/Homo” is a theoretical examination of the ways in which sexuality, love, and... more “The Death of Hetero/Homo” is a theoretical examination of the ways in which sexuality, love, and desire are not merely abstract, innate concepts but have very real consequences as weapons in the process of abjection, particularly of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals. As gender is illegible and fluidly defined, it becomes impossible to dictate that one’s attraction is oriented toward men, women, masculinity, femininity, and/or androgyneity. Ultimately, individuals are attracted or not attracted to particular body parts, personality traits, values, and life goals. None of these can be attached to a particular (a)gender as anyone of any (a)gender can have any number of these qualities. What then does it mean to have a discourse, as well as a movement, around conceptions of heterosexual and homosexual identities that deny such a reality? The answer to this question—the erasure and eradication of particular bodies—calls for the death of hetero and homo, allowing the rethinking of these terms and ideas. This shifts from a place where certain genders are abjected and silenced to a place where all genders are equally affirmed, no one identity superimposed over another. This is not an argument for attraction to all bodies and all beings. However, it is an examination of a discourse of sexuality that is posited on fixed and concrete notions of gender and the ways in which this discourse is used to abject trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming bodies.

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Sexualities, 2020

I analyze the ways in which trans/nonbinary participants queered gender labor and emotion work in... more I analyze the ways in which trans/nonbinary participants queered gender labor and emotion work in intimate relationships by negotiating expectations to feel “proper” ways for intimates and to educate intimates about cis-ness/whiteness. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 15 trans/nonbinary individuals utilizing photo elicitation methods, participants queered intimate emotions by negotiating, reconfiguring, and resisting emotional expectations. They did this through selectively dating trans/nonbinary people and/or queer/trans people of color. Queering intimate emotions functioned to mitigate the effects of whiteness and cis-ness within intimate relationships. I build upon literature on gender labor, emotion work, and trans emotionalities.

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Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2018

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Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2018

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Introducing the New Sexuality Studies

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Hinckley Journal of Politics, 2016

Scholars and activists alike have called attention to the inequitable conditions through which pe... more Scholars and activists alike have called attention to the inequitable conditions through which people of color are funneled into the prison industrial complex. It is imperative to understand how this conversation relates to LGBTQIA identities within particular locales. is project examines the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and age as they relate to LGBTQIA youth in Utah in the juvenile legal system, using Hirschi’s Theory of Social Bonds to analyze the ways in which community prevents “deviant” behavior. In order to understand these unique experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted. e study is a qualitative report of the experiences of these youth. The interviews nd that socioeconomic class more than any other identity played an immense factor for these youth in entering into the juvenile legal system. ey also reveal that community aids in the rehabilitation and reorientation process. ese results support further research into the ...

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Undergraduate Research Journal, 2015

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Gender and Pop Culture

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Expanding the Rainbow

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TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly

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Journal of School Health

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Dying to Be (A)Gendered: An Exploratory Content Analysis of Trans/Nonbinary People’s Experiences with Eating Disorders, 2021

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Sexualities, 2020

Introduction In her work on the queer partnerships of cis femmes and trans men, Carla Pfeffer exp... more Introduction In her work on the queer partnerships of cis femmes and trans men, Carla Pfeffer explains that the word queer can signify a potential desire to adopt 'a more radical or outsider identity as a form of cultural resistance' (2016, p. xxxv). In this article, I analyze the ways in which trans/ nonbinary1 participants from a qualitative study work to queer gender, or, in other words, to negotiate and reconfigure gendered and racialized emotional expectations in intimate relationships. Queer/queering, here, does not refer to specific sexual orientations. Rather, I argue that trans/nonbinary participants (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, heterosexual, and so forth) questioned, resisted, and reconfigured emotional expectations (see Halperin 2003 for the coining and conceptualizing of queer/queer theory). Gender labor, here, included the ways participants worked to contort their bodies, voices, identities, desires, and ideals in order to elicit safety and desirability. In my interviews with fifteen trans/nonbinary individuals, participants discussed seeking out other trans/nonbinary intimate partners and/or other queer and/or trans intimates of color as methods of mitigating the impacts of whiteness and cis-ness within their relationships. While these intentional acts of resistance did not negate the infiltration of cis-heteronormativity and/or whiteness into their relationships, these acts did function as methods of intimate harm reduction. Gender Labor and Emotion Work

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Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, 2018

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NASPA White Paper, 2017

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Write Where it Hurts, 2018

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AIDS & Behavior, 2023

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While Trans Studies analyzes, critiques, and rethinks the epistemological, ontological, and mater... more While Trans Studies analyzes, critiques, and rethinks the epistemological, ontological, and material mechanisms through gender shapes and is shaped by the social world, few studies in the Sociology of Trans Studies have thoroughly theorized and analyzed what exactly constitutes cis-ness. As such, I ask what constitutes cis-ness vis-à-vis sexuality, and how do the desirability discourse of cisgender-heterosexual men and cisgender-lesbian/bi/queer women enact necropolitical boundaries around Black trans women and trans women of color’s subjectivity? Utilizing semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a sample of 32 predominantly Black, cisgender-heterosexual men and cisgender-lesbian/bi/queer women, in addition to a focus group with four white/white-passing participants, and photo elicitation methodologies, I elucidate how Western ontologies of “body reasoning” (Oyěwùmí 1997) and gender essentialism remain prevalent. I argue that participants constructed trans bodies as surplus to the...

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“The Death of Hetero/Homo” is a theoretical examination of the ways in which sexuality, love, and... more “The Death of Hetero/Homo” is a theoretical examination of the ways in which sexuality, love, and desire are not merely abstract, innate concepts but have very real consequences as weapons in the process of abjection, particularly of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals. As gender is illegible and fluidly defined, it becomes impossible to dictate that one’s attraction is oriented toward men, women, masculinity, femininity, and/or androgyneity. Ultimately, individuals are attracted or not attracted to particular body parts, personality traits, values, and life goals. None of these can be attached to a particular (a)gender as anyone of any (a)gender can have any number of these qualities. What then does it mean to have a discourse, as well as a movement, around conceptions of heterosexual and homosexual identities that deny such a reality? The answer to this question—the erasure and eradication of particular bodies—calls for the death of hetero and homo, allowing the rethinking of these terms and ideas. This shifts from a place where certain genders are abjected and silenced to a place where all genders are equally affirmed, no one identity superimposed over another. This is not an argument for attraction to all bodies and all beings. However, it is an examination of a discourse of sexuality that is posited on fixed and concrete notions of gender and the ways in which this discourse is used to abject trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming bodies.

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Sexualities, 2020

I analyze the ways in which trans/nonbinary participants queered gender labor and emotion work in... more I analyze the ways in which trans/nonbinary participants queered gender labor and emotion work in intimate relationships by negotiating expectations to feel “proper” ways for intimates and to educate intimates about cis-ness/whiteness. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 15 trans/nonbinary individuals utilizing photo elicitation methods, participants queered intimate emotions by negotiating, reconfiguring, and resisting emotional expectations. They did this through selectively dating trans/nonbinary people and/or queer/trans people of color. Queering intimate emotions functioned to mitigate the effects of whiteness and cis-ness within intimate relationships. I build upon literature on gender labor, emotion work, and trans emotionalities.

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Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2018

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Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2018

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Introducing the New Sexuality Studies

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Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Hinckley Journal of Politics, 2016

Scholars and activists alike have called attention to the inequitable conditions through which pe... more Scholars and activists alike have called attention to the inequitable conditions through which people of color are funneled into the prison industrial complex. It is imperative to understand how this conversation relates to LGBTQIA identities within particular locales. is project examines the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and age as they relate to LGBTQIA youth in Utah in the juvenile legal system, using Hirschi’s Theory of Social Bonds to analyze the ways in which community prevents “deviant” behavior. In order to understand these unique experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted. e study is a qualitative report of the experiences of these youth. The interviews nd that socioeconomic class more than any other identity played an immense factor for these youth in entering into the juvenile legal system. ey also reveal that community aids in the rehabilitation and reorientation process. ese results support further research into the ...

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Undergraduate Research Journal, 2015

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Gender and Pop Culture

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Expanding the Rainbow

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TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly

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Journal of School Health

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Dying to Be (A)Gendered: An Exploratory Content Analysis of Trans/Nonbinary People’s Experiences with Eating Disorders, 2021

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Sexualities, 2020

Introduction In her work on the queer partnerships of cis femmes and trans men, Carla Pfeffer exp... more Introduction In her work on the queer partnerships of cis femmes and trans men, Carla Pfeffer explains that the word queer can signify a potential desire to adopt 'a more radical or outsider identity as a form of cultural resistance' (2016, p. xxxv). In this article, I analyze the ways in which trans/ nonbinary1 participants from a qualitative study work to queer gender, or, in other words, to negotiate and reconfigure gendered and racialized emotional expectations in intimate relationships. Queer/queering, here, does not refer to specific sexual orientations. Rather, I argue that trans/nonbinary participants (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, heterosexual, and so forth) questioned, resisted, and reconfigured emotional expectations (see Halperin 2003 for the coining and conceptualizing of queer/queer theory). Gender labor, here, included the ways participants worked to contort their bodies, voices, identities, desires, and ideals in order to elicit safety and desirability. In my interviews with fifteen trans/nonbinary individuals, participants discussed seeking out other trans/nonbinary intimate partners and/or other queer and/or trans intimates of color as methods of mitigating the impacts of whiteness and cis-ness within their relationships. While these intentional acts of resistance did not negate the infiltration of cis-heteronormativity and/or whiteness into their relationships, these acts did function as methods of intimate harm reduction. Gender Labor and Emotion Work

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Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, 2018

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NASPA White Paper, 2017

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Write Where it Hurts, 2018

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Netflix Series Review

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