What’s Transgressive about Trans* Studies in Education Now?

Published as a special issue of International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Vol.30, No. 3, 2017.
During the past few years, a nascent body of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research in the field of higher education has emerged regarding transgender students, faculty, and staff. An exciting trend among some of this work is the use of critical and poststructural paradigms, data collection methods, and analytical tools through which to make sense of and articulate findings. In this special issue, authors push the boundaries of what is understood to be the queer theoretical canon. Additionally, they explore the experience of transgender people in higher education environments from methodological, theoretical, and empirical perspectives, foregrounding the recent scholarship, from some of the leading scholars in the field of higher education doing transgender-related research.
Z Nicolazzo is an assistant professor in the Adult and Higher Education program, and a faculty associate in the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, both at Northern Illinois University, USA. Dr. Nicolazzo’s research focuses on mapping gender across college contexts, with a particular emphasis on affirmative and resilience-based research alongside trans* students. Dr. Nicolazzo’s first book, Trans* in College: Transgender Students’ Strategies for Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Politics of Inclusion, details an 18-month critical collaborative ethnography with trans* collegians.