Transformation Cafe - Trans Women and Other Difficult Subjects: Considering Mad Approaches to Communication

What does it mean to be “difficult”? What qualities are being assumed by this term and who are these qualities most often applied to? As both a negative social descriptor (the difficult patient or person) and an artistic aesthetic (the difficult poem or film), difficulty allows us to view and consider intersectional experiences of madness.

In this Transformation Cafe, Dr. Drew McEwan, a mad trans woman, scholar, poet and Assistant Professor with TMUs School of Disability Studies, will lead us in an exploration of “difficulty” as a category imposed on marginalized subjects. In this time of rising global facism and violence, Dr. McEwan’s research on how the cultural and politically rendered “difficult trans woman” can justify the marginalization, political and social abandonment, and reduction of rights for all queer and trans persons is a crucial perspective.
Working with “mad studies” as a critical framework, Dr. McEwan will guide us through a discussion about the term “difficulty” and its impact on everyday lives. We will then explore these ideas from our own experiences through an artistic activity.

This on campus lunch time event is free and open to the public. Lunch and ASL interpretation will be provided. We ask that those coming in person wear a face mask when not eating. Surgical masks will be available.