A JSAH Roundtable consists of a series of short essays, each of approximately 1000 words, that will be collectively published in the place of a single article in an issue of JSAH.
This roundtable asks, how might we take up a historical lens to the spatial and architectural dimensions of trans experiences? Cisnormativity—the outlook according to which cisgender identity is the default norm while other forms of gender identity are seen as deviations from that norm—is deeply ingrained in modern Western social and spatial organization. For transgender individuals, defined as “people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that gender” (Susan Stryker, Transgender History, 2017), cisnormative spaces are frequently experienced as oppressive and hostile. Until recently, trans experiences have not been acknowledged in discourses around architecture.
This roundtable makes space for architectural histories that center trans experiences, especially those written from the perspective of trans individuals. It seeks to elucidate what makes a space trans across diverse historical and geographic contexts, how trans and gender non-conforming actors have historically negotiated cis-gendered spaces, and how trans experiences in architectural history can reframe normative social, cultural, and design practices and ontological categories.
