This talk focuses on how nonbinary, as an analytic, becomes a portal for rethinking dominant conceptions of temporality, territory, and form within and across social difference. Beginning with literary and media depictions of the Green Swamp and Honey Island Swamp monsters—swamp tales that bring the 18^th and 19^th century into the contemporary moment—this talk highlights the monstrosity of fugitivity.

Can we make trans history before the emergence of first-person narratives, and before the very conceptualization of trans issues? The hypothesis this paper develops is that the study of premodern gender transitions can teach us other ways of looking at gender that complicate our current perception, and open up perspectives for future trans people.

The 13th century in the West gave rise to the legendary tale of a parturient pope, that of the popess Joan. Although this story is at the heart of a rich literary, iconographic and historiographic production, from the 13th century to the present day, it has only been considered through the reading grid of a single possibility until now, the cis possibility, that of the sole congruence with her assigned sex: Jeanne, a woman, disguises herself as another, as a man, and in so doing, cross-dresses and hides. This possibility alone does little to account for the range of medieval possibilities: Joan is also John, and John himself is possibly a trans man.

In this contribution, Nayansaku Mufwankolo discusses their writing practice, autofiction afrocosmic poetry, and reads one of their poem.

In this paper, Liz Escalle-Dyachenko discusses three pieces for strings from the 2010s by three trans and non-binary composers of contemporary music based in the United States.

This contribution explores the reality of trans children’s lives, the social contexts in which they evolve, their games and their emotions; but also trans children’s struggles, the strategies and spaces of autonomy they deploy to cope with the multiple violences they experience.

Medical violence is central to the narration of our past and present trans experiences, and also structures the way trans hirstory is collected, constructed and told, both epistemologically and materially. Drawing on an experience as a community researcher, trainer and care professional, this talk illustrates three forms of violence imposed by the medical establishment on trans hirstory, and three ways in which we can respond by constructing a narrative that neither over-medicalizes nor erases the materiality of trans bodies. Thwarting the forces of attraction and repulsion imposed by this medical tropism enables the transmission of a trans hirstory that is itself a source of care.

This talk presents the provisional results of a research currently being carried out as part of a PhD on mobilizations for the health of trans people in France, from the late 1970s to the late 2010s.

Through a methodology based on Oral History interviews and archival research, this communication focuses on the theatrical strategies developed by trans activists to platform their revendications in France. It centers the analysis on the Existrans/ExisTransInter, the largest visibility-oriented event for trans rights in France. As visibility-oriented activism is raising more and more scepticism among trans activists, this communication raises key issues concerning the future of the ExisTransInter.