In anticipation of the Trans German Studies Workshop: Contours, Critiques, and Emerging Conversations, join Dr. Cedar Lensing-Sharp and CENES postdoctoral fellow Dr. Jonah I. Garde for a day of insightful learning and workshopping.
This event is taking place on May 20, 2026 from 12:00 pm – 5:30 pm PT. To attend, please fill out this registration form by May 6, 2026.
As this is a hybrid event, attendees can participate in-person in Buchanan Tower 997, or online via Zoom. If you are planning to attend virtually, please register using this form.
Light refreshments will be provided for those who attend in person.
Program
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm (in-person or on Zoom)
Led by Dr. Cedar Lensing-Sharp and Jonah I. Garde
How do we transmit the indeterminacy or ambiguity of gender from one language to another? How might we respond, both theoretically and in translation practice, to the ethical issues inherent in texts that cast gender diversity as pathology? While the role of translation in the transmission of knowledge about non-normative sexualities and genders has been acknowledged by scholars, less attention has been paid to the strategies and ethical questions that might influence the practice of translating texts that depict transness or trans people.
This seminar brings graduate students and workshop participants together in critical conversation about ethics, strategies, and contexts informing the translation of German texts on trans gender. Readings will be pre-circulated, and graduate students are invited to bring their own short sample translations of German-language texts on trans gender for the workshop portion of the seminar. These texts may include sexological writings, letters, police records, memoir or autobiographical writing, fiction, poetry, or scholarly works.
Our aim is to grapple with both the challenges and the critical potential of translating texts that center on non-normative or trans gender identities and expressions. Through discussion and providing constructive feedback on one another’s translations, we hope to introduce newcomers to critical questions in the translation of transgender texts and equip all attendees with strategies for their own research and translation work on German trans texts.
The seminar will consist of two parts: a workshop for graduate students at UBC to receive feedback on translations in progress (with all attendees welcome to sit in) and a roundtable discussion, open to all attendees, in which we will discuss pre-circulated readings in conjunction with questions and issues that arose during the workshop portion.
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm (in-person only)
Led by Cedar Lensing-Sharp and Jonah I. Garde
During this intimate, hands-on workshop, we will explore zine-making as a practice of queer and trans world-making. Working together, we will experiment with cutting, pasting, layering, and remixing as methods of storytelling and critique, paying particular attention to how trans lives have been represented, erased, and reimagined within German-speaking contexts. Attendees will create a collective zine made of (reproduced) archival sources relating to trans German past, presents, and futures.
Materials will be provided although participants are welcome to bring their own magazines, stickers, images, writings, and found objects to use for collaging. No prior experience with zine-making is necessary.
This event is co-sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service, the UBC Centre for European Studies, the Centre for Queer and Trans Cultural Praxis (UBC Research Excellence Cluster), the UBC Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, and the UBC Robert Quartermain Centre for SOGI-Inclusive Excellence in Education.
