EALC Lecture Series | Trans in Relation, Topos in Motion: Narrativity and the Power of Congruency

Howard Chiang, associate professor of history, UC Davis

This talk discusses the programmatic contours of a new keyword, transtopia, to theorize different scales of gender transgression that are not always recognizable through the Western notion of transgender. Historical examples from the Sinophone Pacific will be used to reframe the politics of knowledge production in terms of an ethics of congruent narrativity.

Professor Chiang’s research focuses on the history of modern China and global Sinophone cultures, with an emphasis on the critical studies of science, medicine, gender, and sexuality. His scholarship has been supported by Academia Sinica, British Arts and Humanities Research Council, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, D. Kim Foundation, National Humanities Center, Tang Prize Foundation, and Wellcome Trust. His work has contributed to advancing the fields of transgender history, Sinophone studies, and the historical epistemology of East Asian medicine. His publications include Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific (Columbia University Press, 2021).

Registration is required to attend lecture. Once registered you will receive the Zoom link.

Sponsored by East Asian Languages and Cultures

Supported by a grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Education