UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A panel of leading scholars on trans and queer studies will discuss the recently published book “Trans Care” by Hil Malatino, assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies and research associate in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. The virtual event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press, “Trans Care” rejects dominant understandings of the ethics of care and draws attention to how they help entrench family structures and other gendered arrangements that marginalize trans individuals. In the book, Malatino goes beyond just critiquing where existing theories fall short and tackles the critical work of reimagining what an ethics of care looks like in communities of trans individuals and their allies.
“Trans Care” is Malatino’s second book in as many years exploring issues related to gender and sex equity. In 2019, he published “Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience” with the University of Nebraska Press.
Joining Malatino on the Dec. 1 panel to discuss “Trans Care” will be Jules Gill-Peterson, associate professor of English and gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and Ann Cvetkovich, director of the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies at Carleton University. The panel will explore themes raised in Malatino’s book, such as the unique challenges faced by trans individuals, how traditional systems of support often fail them and why we must radically rethink the ethics of care as it applies to them.
The Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State are sponsoring the event. All are welcome to attend. For more information about the event and how to register to watch it online, visit https://bit.ly/36waEqF. Please contact Rock Ethics Institute associate director Erin Heidt-Forsythe at eah28@psu.edu if you have any questions about the event.
The Rock Ethics Institute was established in 2001 through a $5 million gift from Doug and Julie Rock. Its mission is to promote engaged ethics research and ethical leadership from its home in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts.