Books by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders (2014)
Co-edited with Niko Besnier, this collection explores alternative sexualities and gender identiti... more Co-edited with Niko Besnier, this collection explores alternative sexualities and gender identities in the Pacific region. In 2015, Gender on the Edge was a recipient of the ICAS Reading Committee Edited Volume Accolade in the Social Sciences.
Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender and Cook Islands Globalization (2009)
Explores the significance of dance to Cook Islands femininity throughout colonial history and in ... more Explores the significance of dance to Cook Islands femininity throughout colonial history and in its contemporary global manifestations.
Articles by Kalissa Alexeyeff
This paper examines how popular jokes about White women and their sexuality are utilised by Cook ... more This paper examines how popular jokes about White women and their sexuality are utilised by Cook Islanders to negotiate relationships with outsiders, particularly Western tourists. These jokes serve to unsettle tourist images of erotic paradise populated with welcoming island women and, further, offer a humorous commentary on the inequities of global capitalism.
From the 1990s, neoliberalism has been vigorously promoted by aid agencies operating in the Cook ... more From the 1990s, neoliberalism has been vigorously promoted by aid agencies operating in the Cook Islands. The solution to the country's economic problems has been sought in the privatisation of government assets and services and the development of free-market principles. Social Impact Assessment reports of these reforms have included information on their effect on women and children under the heading of 'gender'; men, however, are notably absent as a category of analysis. Building on recent work about men, masculinities and development, this paper begins to address this imbalance by examining how Cook Islands men have been effected by, and how they react to, neoliberalism in a series of gender specific ways. In particular, it explores the relationship between masculinity, class, status, and migration.
The Contemporary Pacific, 2007
This article is about a Drag Queen competition I attended on Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in 1998. 1 ... more This article is about a Drag Queen competition I attended on Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in 1998. 1 I am returning to it because it continues to perplex me-much as it did the audience on the night it was held. It was a show that combined elements of "Western" drag shows and beauty pageants, and "local" styles of cross-dressing and performing. This combination in itself is not unusual; drag queen competitions that meld local and nonlocal styles of drag performance have been held on Rarotonga since at least the 1980s. This particular show included performances that resulted in the show being judged by many in the audience as less than entertaining and, at times, highly distasteful. These sentiments were summed up in the aftermath, as the unanimous reaction to the competition was, "It was stink."
Dress of the Cook Islands
Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, 2010
Snapshot: The Mu’umu’u
Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, 2010
Book Chapters by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Transgressive sex: subversion and control in erotic encounters
Managing Modernity in the Western Pacific
Panels Organized by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Friday November 22, 2019
Panel I: 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Panel II: 4:15 PM - 6:00 PM
Vancouver CC W... more Friday November 22, 2019
Panel I: 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Panel II: 4:15 PM - 6:00 PM
Vancouver CC West Room 103 & 104
Chairs/Organizers:
Michelle Ho, National University of Singapore
Jenny Hoang, University of Southern California
“Trans Asia Pacific: Changing Queer Climates” is a two-part panel series that seeks to interrogate how “trans-” as a prefix shifts meanings of gender, sexuality, and the nation-state in Asia and the Pacific Islands. We foreground “Asia” and “Pacific Islands” as heterogeneous cultures, languages, and peoples engaged in global and diasporic migration flows and exchanges. Building on past anthropological works and scholarly collaborations on trans Asia Pacific (Martin and Ho 2006; Chiang 2012; Besnier and Alexeyeff 2014; Yue 2017; Aizura 2018; Chiang, Henry, and Leung 2018), this double panel asks the following questions: If “trans-” refers to “across,” “beyond,” and “through,” what gets left behind or crossed over when trans subjects travel and live across multiple locales? What limitations can “passing” suggest as genders and sexualities exist and proliferate in varied geographies, histories, climates, and temporalities? How might doing ethnographic research shape, enable, or challenge our understandings of “queer” and “trans” subjects?
Approaching these questions at the intersections of anthropology, queer studies, transgender studies, and transpacific studies, we intervene in the ongoing conversation by highlighting the lived experience of mobile trans subjects, materialization of inter- and diasporic Asian subjectivities, and mediation of trans embodied desires and practices. This two-part panel takes stock of what Trans Asia Pacific can be and where it could go. Comprising an interdisciplinary group of junior and established scholars, all eight presenters map diverse ethnographic engagements with trans across Samoa, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, and the United States. Panel I approaches the question of Trans Asia Pacific through an analysis of migration histories, the nation-state, and the politics of LGBTQ activism, whereas Panel II enters the question of Trans Asia Pacific through an examination of gender and sexual embodiment and their media, digital, and affective circulations.
Panel I
Discussant: Martin Manalansan, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
“Transgender and Transnational Lives of Transpinay Entertainers in Japan”
Tricia Okada
Tamagawa University
“Abundance and Reciprocal Recognition: Living Alongside Taiwanese and Taiwanese American Ts”
Jenny Hoang
University of Southern California
“Transnational LGBT Activism: Migrants’ Pride in Hong Kong”
Francisca Yuen-ki Lai
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
“‘Waiting for More Fish:’ Filipino Cannery Worker Histories in Astoria, Oregon and Contemporary Trans Filipinx (Auto-ethnographic) Photography”
Kale Fajardo
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Panel II
Discussant: Niko Besnier, Amsterdam University
“Samoan Queer Lives: TransPacific Gender and Sexuality”
Kalissa Alexeyeff
University of Melbourne
“Mediating Historical Continuity: Trans- Feminine Visibility in Indonesia, 1968”
Benjamin Hegarty
University of Melbourne
“Sissies, Butches, or Transsexuals: The Localization of Gender/Sexuality in Contemporary Thailand”
Dredge Byung'chu Kang-Nguyen
University of California San Diego
“Digital Trans Citizenship: Reconfiguring Gender, Nation, and Feminism in Japanese Online Media”
Michelle H. S. Ho
National University of Singapore
Papers by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Heterosexuality, Heteronormative
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Heterosexuality is the expression of sexual desire and orientation toward a person of the opposit... more Heterosexuality is the expression of sexual desire and orientation toward a person of the opposite biological sex. It refers to emotional attachments, sexual acts and practices, and a sense of identity. Since the 1990s, the term “heteronormativity” has gained currency, highlighting those aspects of social life beyond heterosexual erotic practice. Heteronormativity is a concept that aims to illustrate how social institutions and policy, ranging from marriage to citizenship, reinforce and privilege heterosexuality as both normal and morally right
Fashioning culture: Transforming perspectives from Oceania
Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty
In this introductory article we discuss what might be gained from examining more familiar areas o... more In this introductory article we discuss what might be gained from examining more familiar areas of anthropological research such as cloth, dress or material culture through fashion as an analytical category and, in turn, how insights from Pacific clothing cultures can broaden understandings of fashion. Our aim is to unsettle the ethnographic gaze that is often brought to bear on non-western cultures of fashion, cloth, clothing, style and innovation. Fashion, as we conceive of it, spans from the physical production and design of garments and objects to everyday appearances, the desire to be ‘in vogue’ and the consumption of aesthetic objects that are considered popular. From this starting point we move analyses of fashion from the systemic to the experiential, reflecting ethnographic sensitivity to everyday embodied practice and the constant political and creative negotiation of values and norms that takes place in quotidian social relations. We situate these analyses in a region tha...
Review of The Pacific Festivals of Aotearoa New Zealand: Negotiating Place and Identity in a New Homeland, by Jared Mackley-Crump
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Books by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Articles by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Book Chapters by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Panels Organized by Kalissa Alexeyeff
Panel I: 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Panel II: 4:15 PM - 6:00 PM
Vancouver CC West Room 103 & 104
Chairs/Organizers:
Michelle Ho, National University of Singapore
Jenny Hoang, University of Southern California
“Trans Asia Pacific: Changing Queer Climates” is a two-part panel series that seeks to interrogate how “trans-” as a prefix shifts meanings of gender, sexuality, and the nation-state in Asia and the Pacific Islands. We foreground “Asia” and “Pacific Islands” as heterogeneous cultures, languages, and peoples engaged in global and diasporic migration flows and exchanges. Building on past anthropological works and scholarly collaborations on trans Asia Pacific (Martin and Ho 2006; Chiang 2012; Besnier and Alexeyeff 2014; Yue 2017; Aizura 2018; Chiang, Henry, and Leung 2018), this double panel asks the following questions: If “trans-” refers to “across,” “beyond,” and “through,” what gets left behind or crossed over when trans subjects travel and live across multiple locales? What limitations can “passing” suggest as genders and sexualities exist and proliferate in varied geographies, histories, climates, and temporalities? How might doing ethnographic research shape, enable, or challenge our understandings of “queer” and “trans” subjects?
Approaching these questions at the intersections of anthropology, queer studies, transgender studies, and transpacific studies, we intervene in the ongoing conversation by highlighting the lived experience of mobile trans subjects, materialization of inter- and diasporic Asian subjectivities, and mediation of trans embodied desires and practices. This two-part panel takes stock of what Trans Asia Pacific can be and where it could go. Comprising an interdisciplinary group of junior and established scholars, all eight presenters map diverse ethnographic engagements with trans across Samoa, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, and the United States. Panel I approaches the question of Trans Asia Pacific through an analysis of migration histories, the nation-state, and the politics of LGBTQ activism, whereas Panel II enters the question of Trans Asia Pacific through an examination of gender and sexual embodiment and their media, digital, and affective circulations.
Panel I
Discussant: Martin Manalansan, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
“Transgender and Transnational Lives of Transpinay Entertainers in Japan”
Tricia Okada
Tamagawa University
“Abundance and Reciprocal Recognition: Living Alongside Taiwanese and Taiwanese American Ts”
Jenny Hoang
University of Southern California
“Transnational LGBT Activism: Migrants’ Pride in Hong Kong”
Francisca Yuen-ki Lai
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
“‘Waiting for More Fish:’ Filipino Cannery Worker Histories in Astoria, Oregon and Contemporary Trans Filipinx (Auto-ethnographic) Photography”
Kale Fajardo
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Panel II
Discussant: Niko Besnier, Amsterdam University
“Samoan Queer Lives: TransPacific Gender and Sexuality”
Kalissa Alexeyeff
University of Melbourne
“Mediating Historical Continuity: Trans- Feminine Visibility in Indonesia, 1968”
Benjamin Hegarty
University of Melbourne
“Sissies, Butches, or Transsexuals: The Localization of Gender/Sexuality in Contemporary Thailand”
Dredge Byung'chu Kang-Nguyen
University of California San Diego
“Digital Trans Citizenship: Reconfiguring Gender, Nation, and Feminism in Japanese Online Media”
Michelle H. S. Ho
National University of Singapore
Papers by Kalissa Alexeyeff