Journal Articles by reese simpkins
Temporal Flesh, Material Becomings
Somatechnics, 2017
Drawing on contemporary trans* scholarship, I highlight an incorporeal, affective dimension of tr... more Drawing on contemporary trans* scholarship, I highlight an incorporeal, affective dimension of trans* embodiment, which I argue operates nonlinearly, enmeshing a past-present-future becoming. I show that the dynamic movement underlying both trans* and matter suggests their mutual imbrication—a mutual imbrication that trans*es materiality. Through the concept of autopoiesis, or the ability of systems to self-organise, I link trans*ed materiality at the micro level (cellular and quantum) to the social processes of trans* assemblages. Autopoiesis emerges as an affective realm, a dimension of trans*ed materiality and a process of trans* assemblages, all of which are integral in the production of space and time. As trans* bodies materialise, they create unique temporal embodiments that challenge universal frameworks of chronological time, highlight the nonlinear resonation of matter and enmesh past-present-future in open-ended becomings. The resulting ontogenetic, ‘involutionary’ processes of creative evolution produce unique temporalities that form the basis of new embodiments, new subjectivities, and new potentials for existence. As autopoietic processes produce new entities, the uniqueness of each becoming-trans* transforms the spatial and temporal context in which the becomings occur. Keeping in mind that becoming is never complete, I conclude that trans* temporalities are nonlinear, affective processes involved in the production of becoming-trans*. Trans* temporalities are, thus, entangled in an open-ended past-present-future.
The author argues that trans* materialities are part of a trans*feminist politics of becoming-int... more The author argues that trans* materialities are part of a trans*feminist politics of becoming-intersectional, which emphasizes the movement underlying identificatory processes. Articulating trans* as a dynamic movement of becoming-intersectional undermines both the nor-mative construction of bounded categories and the identities that emerge from these processes, thereby allying trans*, feminist, and intersectional politics. Moreover, conceptualizing politics in this manner foregrounds the " categorical miscegenation " of both intersectional theorizing and trans* scholarship, and it contributes to ongoing conversations in both bodies of scholarship that are concerned with the ways in which categories operate politically. By highlighting the political stakes in the materialization of matter and the concomitant production of categories and identifications, a trans*feminist politics of becoming-intersectional foregrounds process over positionality and takes place at a fundamental level—at the level of materiality, where the ways in which matter materializes resonates politically.
Book Chapters by reese simpkins
Contagious Becomings, Involutionary Sexes
Deleuze and Transgender Studies (forthcoming)
The chapter theorizes trans* as an ontogenetic matter-energy-flow that is inherently enmeshed in ... more The chapter theorizes trans* as an ontogenetic matter-energy-flow that is inherently enmeshed in dynamic, involutionary processes, and argues that a molecular trans* politics of becoming is inherently part of an involuntary, affective materiality. The chapter begins by using both trans* and Deleuzian theory to highlight a dynamic materiality of embodiment that both produces and is produced by a corporeally generated incorporeal/intangible dimension of affectivity. As affect works to undermine the normative boundaries of Cartesian certainty, it forges rhizomatic connections between bodies normatively indexed as separate. As such, affect drives involutionary becomings and produces new bodies and potentialities. The chapter moves on to argue that trans* assemblages are implicated in these involutionary becomings in at least two ways. First, their molecular side is part of the production of “a thousand tiny sexes,” where the myth of dichotomous sex gives way to a multiplicity of sexed becomings. Here sex is understood not in terms of molar sex organs, but in the molecular terms of matter-energy-flow’s promiscuous becoming, whereby the rhizomatic connections made possible by affect produce a multiplicity of sexes and sexualities (beyond male-female couplings). These sexed becomings both work to produce new involutionary potentials as matter-energy-flow resonates and propagate through contagion. Second, the molar side of trans* assemblages works to undermine the normative functions of identity, identification, and subjectivity. Trans* embodiments are fundamentally at odds with the normative sex and gender attributions through which selves come into being. Despite the increased social recognition of certain groups of trans* people, as a whole, trans* experiences continue to highlight the inadequacy of the social production of sex/gender norms and the related identity effects. Consequently, the molar aggregate of trans* identities, experiences, and embodiments continues to erode the stability of molar identity production. In other words, trans* highlights the multiplicity of the molar dimension’s apparent singularity. Much like the Deleuzo-Guattarian argument that all becomings must go through a process of becoming-woman, becoming-trans* extends beyond those who identify as trans* and resonates at the ontogenetic level where matter comes into being. Further, like the molar politics of women, a molar trans* politics is necessary to improve the lives of trans* people. However, the political implications of trans* assemblages are not limited to the molar dimension. Thus, the chapter concludes by discussing a trans* politics of becoming-imperceptible at the molecular level, where the rhizomatic processes of affective involutions propagate through contagious infections. This politics takes place at a fundamental level of materiality, where matter’s dynamism continues making connections outside normative parameters (whatever form those parameters may take). The infectious contagions of trans* assemblages are virulent strains that work to undermine the apparent stability of molar aggregates. A molecular politics of becoming-imperceptible, then, exacerbates the disruption of trans* politics in the molar realm, while simultaneously forging new disruptive potentials and prompting new infectious becomings in the molecular dimension.
Trans/forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out, 2006
Edited Collections and Special Issues by reese simpkins
The Somatechnics of Sexuality in Canada
Somatechnics, 2017
Book Reviews by reese simpkins
Conference Proceedings and Papers by reese simpkins
Drawing on transgender studies scholarship regarding the asterisk in trans*, I theorize trans* ou... more Drawing on transgender studies scholarship regarding the asterisk in trans*, I theorize trans* outside the normative boundaries of subjectivity and identity/identification and conceptualize trans* as an emergent, self-organizing system, the materiality of which produces space and time. Using a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework, I argue that trans* both produces and is a product of creative evolution, where the ways in which matter materializes is inherently political. In terms of self-organizing, regardless of scale, all living systems produce their own rhythms, such as waste expulsion, nutrient intake, and 'digestion.' As they accomplish these tasks these systems operate according to their own sense of time based upon their needs from moment to moment. Concurrently, living systems maintain boundaries-albeit permeable ones-between themselves and their milieu. I argue that these self-organizing practices are best understood as part of an ontogenetic dimension of trans* self-organizing, where the same self-organizing practices through which single-celled living systems come into existence also produce larger organisms. Thus, I link trans* self-organizing at the individual, cellular level with self-organizing at the human, socio-political level. In this context, politics inhere in the material processes of space/time production. Using trans* embodiment as a starting point, I conclude by creating a politics of becoming that incorporates materiality's dimension of unstable, nonlinear change and intersectional, identitarian political frameworks.
A major theme of contemporary trans* scholarship is that of migrations, borders, and boundaries, ... more A major theme of contemporary trans* scholarship is that of migrations, borders, and boundaries, where a newly emerging ‘trans* of color’ critique draws a link between trans* studies and anti-racist scholarship. Situating my argument within this nexus, I use a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework to articulate an intersectional trans* politics. I argue that trans* materialities themselves are part of a politics of becoming-intersectional that operates in concert with Jasbir Puar’s conceptualization of a ‘becoming of intersectionality,’ where the ‘becoming of intersectionality’ emphasizes the movement underlying identificatory processes over the gridded positionality of identity. A trans* politics of becoming-intersectional underscores the dynamic migratory movement of matter underlying more stable identity-based politics. I show that normative understandings of trans* as a sex/gender identification work to isolate sex/gender from other intersectional axes of identification and works to reinforce the whiteness of trans*. In contrast, articulating trans* as a dynamic movement of becoming-intersectional undermines both the normative construction of bounded categories and the identities that emerge from these processes, thereby allying trans* and intersectional politics. By highlighting the political stakes in the materialization of matter and the concomitant production of categories and identifications, a trans* politics of becoming-intersectional foregrounds process over positionality and takes place at a fundamental level—at the level of materiality itself, where the ways in which matter materializes resonates politically. A trans* politics of becoming-intersectional, then, is a politics of movement, a politics of materiality, that refuses the normative isolation of categories, and politicizes the material migrations underlying identificatory practices.
Using examples from the trans rights movement in Canada, the paper considers the flaws inherent i... more Using examples from the trans rights movement in Canada, the paper considers the flaws inherent in politics of recognition. Drawing on a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework, the paper argues that even models of recognition based on intersectionality fail to adequately address the underlying, substantive multiplicity and movement inherent in trans (an umbrella term that incorporates many non-normatively sexed and/or gendered people and identities). Because politics of recognition require the affirmations of an Other, the paper contends that recognition politics are limited to a reactionary politics based upon inclusion within existing, albeit intersectional, categories as opposed to an active politics of transformation. In theorizing trans as a substantive multiplicity, a dynamic movement of becoming, the paper outlines a politics of becoming that emphasizes the movement underlying all identities and identifications. The emphasis on becoming as opposed to being—on acts and forces as opposed to identities and identifications—opens up new avenues of exploration outside of those limited by a politics of recognition, thereby producing new bodies and new relationships—new assemblages. In this sense, the dynamic movement that characterizes trans assemblages requires attending to trans politics, in particular, and politics, in general, in terms of a politics of acts, a politics of impersonal forces, a politics of becoming. The paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of recognition politics for trans people, but cautions against limiting politics to this framework. Only a politics based on both recognition and becoming can alleviate suffering and challenge oppression.
Conference Presentations by reese simpkins
Conversations in queer and trans* animal studies show that sexuality exceeds normative reproducti... more Conversations in queer and trans* animal studies show that sexuality exceeds normative reproductive emphases on genital sexuality. Given that the development of genitally based, reproductive capacities, like those found in humans, are a recent addition to the mating practices of organisms, the salient question here is why genital, reproductive sex emerged at all (Hird, 2006)—a question that displaces the heteronormative centering of genital sexuality. In such a context, I argue that it is all the more important to displace human sexual frameworks as the normative measure of sexuality. Consequently, I put new materialist and tranimal studies, which highlight the rhizomorphic imbrication of nature/human and animal/human, in conversation with ecosexualities, which emphasize the erotic relationalities of these rhizomorphic imbrications. Rather than starting with an assumption of human, genital sex geared toward reproduction as the basis for sexuality, ecosexuality emphasizes trans*species pollinations and rhizomorphic couplings. As such, sexuality broadens beyond the limited boundaries of normative, genital couplings, extending into “a thousand tiny sexes” (Grosz, 1993). Moreover, inasmuch as “trans* is prepositionally oriented—marking the with, through, of, in, and across that make life possible” (Hayward and Weinstien, 2015), I argue that the vitality of trans* materialities both animate and are animated by the rhizomorphic, species-crossing sexualities of the dynamic imbrication of the human/non-human. Ecosexualities, then, are broadened beyond human sexual identities, and extend into a multiplicity of both human and non-human becomings.
In this paper, I articulate a framework for trans*ing diversity that counters the fetish of objec... more In this paper, I articulate a framework for trans*ing diversity that counters the fetish of objectivism and singularity prevalent in neoliberal logics of multicultural diversity, and that allies itself with decolonizing, anti-racist, and feminist movements, among others. I begin with an analysis of “Gender/Sovereignty,” where Vic Muñoz argues that a “decolonizing pedagogy of transing” does more than highlight the different experiences of different students within a particular course; rather, transing pedagogy shows that these different experiences actually result in different courses being taught. Munoz’s work, thus, prompts a fundamental consideration of different courses—that is, different institutional renderings and offerings. Despite objectivist accounts of the classroom and the university, I argue that there are indeed multiple classes of the same course taking place simultaneously, multiple universities occurring through the prism of different experiences and different social locations. With multiple courses occurring at the same time in the same classroom, there is a temporal multiplicity here that undermines neoliberal chrononormativies and their imposition of linear time. This becoming-multiplicity resists the quantification of neoliberal fiscal logics prevalent in the managerial techniques of universities that only understand learning in linear, functionalist terms—if the delivery of the same course material results in different classes being taught, learning fundamentally cannot be quantified or linearized in any simple way. I conclude that trans*ing diversity produces a multiplicity of transformational knowledges and learning practices that work against the academy’s bureaucratic operation, its flattening and quantification of difference. The resulting becoming is crucial to challenging the contemporary corporatization of learning and knowledge production.
Roundtable: The Somatechnics of Sexuality in Canada
This roundtable will invite authors from the special issue of Somatechnics, entitled “Sexuality i... more This roundtable will invite authors from the special issue of Somatechnics, entitled “Sexuality in Canada,” to discuss their contributions. Desires, acts, identities, communities, movements: for this special issue of Somatechnics, we invited submissions from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives that investigate the ways in which “Sexuality in Canada” operates. In keeping with the journal’s emphasis on the entanglement of embodiment and technologies, techniques, and technics, we were particularly interested in scholarship that emphasizes the reproduction and governance of bodies through various technologies, along with work that considers the ways in which bodies disrupt and trouble these processes. As such, we are interested in scholarship that addresses sexuality at the intersections of body, technology, and place, and welcome work that connects sexuality to “Canada” in its myriad forms, for example, as geographic location and contested territory, nation-state, or theoretical orientation. Because sexuality is promulgated through a variety of social formations, political institutions, scientific knowledge, and cultural expressions, we seek scholarship committed to examining a variety of sexual identifications and cultures, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, intersex, heterosexual, and asexual; as well as, studies of alternative ways of organizing sexualities and alternatives to sexuality. Mindful of microsexualities, which work as forces of vital materiality undermining the solidity of aggregate sexual identifications, we are similarly interested in scholarship exploring the political affectivities inherent within diverse sexual flows.
Critical of scholarship that takes for granted the boundaries of Canada and the meaning of “Canadian,” we invite contributors to displace and subvert “Canada” by engaging with critical feminist transnational perspectives and modes of knowledge production, Indigenous scholarship, and trans, queer, and disability scholars. We, thus, welcome work that challenges the organization and practices of sexuality in Canada, recognizing the ways in which “Canada” invokes a necropolitical present populated by an ableist and eugenicist imperative within an ongoing history of settler colonialism, anti-Black racism, and Islamophobia, all of which operate in conjunction with heteronormative, homonationalist practices.
Transitional processes are often articulated as a process of coming home to the body, or restorin... more Transitional processes are often articulated as a process of coming home to the body, or restoring the body to a wholeness it never had. Thinking through transition in terms of restoration sets up a paradox of memory, where transition remembers bodies to a form they always expressed, but never had. I argue that the concept of proprioceptive memory provides a resolution for this paradox, where bodies have embodied memory based not on physical appearance, but on proprioceptive muscle memory. Through proprioceptive sensories, bodies develop a memory of movement that indexes to the muscle's individual pattern of relaxation and tension as bodies move through space. Because every body has a unique anatomical structure, the resulting patterns of movement produce temporalities specific to each body. As such, proprioception offers a nonlinear continuity of embodiment based on the rhythms of movement produced by the everyday concatenations of trans* embodiments. All sensories are relational embodiments produced in the intra-action of materiality, where the embodied temporalities produced in proprioceptive becomings are part of a becoming of materiality, or the intra-relation and dynamic variation of matter. As such, I show that trans* embodiments and their associated proprioceptive sensories are entangled in matter's affective processes of becoming. The temporalities produced by these affective materialities create a present that is an always embodied, affectively overfull past-future becoming.
Roundtable: Future Feminisms
This micro-panel is being organized by the Women's Caucus of the CPSA. The purpose of the panel i... more This micro-panel is being organized by the Women's Caucus of the CPSA. The purpose of the panel is to explore how changes in and issues confronting Canadian society have impacted on the practices and expression of Canadian feminism and the women's movement. What does feminism look like today and what is its future from a variety of perspectives, e.g., theory, policy, law, representation, discourse, the academy, generational, racial and ethnic difference, etc.?
Trans* Self-Organizing: The Politics of Materiality
Drawing on transgender studies scholarship regarding the asterisk in trans*, I theorize trans* ou... more Drawing on transgender studies scholarship regarding the asterisk in trans*, I theorize trans* outside the normative boundaries of subjectivity and identity/identification and conceptualize trans* as an emergent, self-organizing system, the materiality of which produces space and time. Using a Deleuzo-Guattarian framework, I argue that trans* both produces and is a product of creative evolution, where the ways in which matter materializes is inherently political. In terms of self-organizing, regardless of scale, all living systems produce their own rhythms, such as waste expulsion, nutrient intake, and 'digestion.' As they accomplish these tasks these systems operate according to their own sense of time based upon their needs from moment to moment. Concurrently, living systems maintain boundaries-albeit permeable ones-between themselves and their milieu. I argue that these self-organizing practices are best understood as part of an ontogenetic dimension of trans* self-organizing, where the same self-organizing practices through which single-celled living systems come into existence also produce larger organisms. Thus, I link trans* self-organizing at the individual, cellular level with self-organizing at the human, socio-political level. In this context, politics inhere in the material processes of space/time production. Using trans* embodiment as a starting point, I conclude by creating a politics of becoming that incorporates materiality's dimension of unstable, nonlinear change and intersectional, identitarian political frameworks.
Roundtable: Finding Feminisms: Contemporary Changes, Challenges and Opportunities
Roundtable: Diversity Matters: Best Practices in Creating Inclusive Classrooms and Research in the University
Universities do not exist in a bubble but rather, they are an integral part of, and reflection of... more Universities do not exist in a bubble but rather, they are an integral part of, and reflection of, the wider communities within which we live. In this roundtable we seek to provide an opportunity and space for a meaningful discussion on the importance of diversity, inclusion and transformation in our teaching and research in the university. Discussion will be guided by a number of questions, including: What is the academic and social significance of the function of the university in framing the important questions of our time; and how does conventional scholarship both illuminate some, and ignore other, questions? What are the best strategies for dismantling the structural barriers and inequalities that exist in our classrooms? How can we support students to work through difficult or personally challenging material, in the interests of better scholarship and a more developed socio-political analysis? How does the current fiscal and ideological climate affect how diversity is being taught and researched? (ie. applying for grants, program or course cuts, etc.; the pervasive gag on political work imposed by various funding agencies.) How do we adapt disciplinary curricula that historically has been hostile to critical and subaltern scholarship? How do our approaches to teaching and research take into account matters of intersectionality and of race, gender and other forms of privilege? The overall goal is to develop a number of best practices in the recognition and adoption of diversity matters in the work we do.
Trans* Matters, Becoming Politics
In order to conceptualize the corporeality of trans* embodiments, I draw on the insights of new m... more In order to conceptualize the corporeality of trans* embodiments, I draw on the insights of new materialism to create a framework of trans* materiality. In so doing, I show that trans* and matter are mutually imbricated. As such, I articulate both trans* and matter in terms of a dynamic “matter-energy-flow.” This ongoing movement suggests that human embodiment is not fixed, but rather varies continuously. I show that through creative evolution, bodies affectively involve as a result of the ongoing resonance of material processes. These affective processes embed materiality, in general, and corporeal materiality, in particular, in a rhizomatic world of becoming. Consequently, I argue that “the body” is a transitional body—a becoming-body subject to modification. Using trans* embodiment as a starting point, I conclude by creating a trans* politics of becoming imperceptible that incorporates materiality’s dimension of unstable, nonlinear change and intersectional, identitarian political frameworks.
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Journal Articles by reese simpkins
Book Chapters by reese simpkins
Edited Collections and Special Issues by reese simpkins
Book Reviews by reese simpkins
Conference Proceedings and Papers by reese simpkins
Conference Presentations by reese simpkins
Critical of scholarship that takes for granted the boundaries of Canada and the meaning of “Canadian,” we invite contributors to displace and subvert “Canada” by engaging with critical feminist transnational perspectives and modes of knowledge production, Indigenous scholarship, and trans, queer, and disability scholars. We, thus, welcome work that challenges the organization and practices of sexuality in Canada, recognizing the ways in which “Canada” invokes a necropolitical present populated by an ableist and eugenicist imperative within an ongoing history of settler colonialism, anti-Black racism, and Islamophobia, all of which operate in conjunction with heteronormative, homonationalist practices.