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Deep Dives

Deep Dives invites viewers into a series of filmed panels featuring conversations with trans studies scholars and activists. Panelists engage in a wide range of topics including trans people in sports, trans healthcare, prison abolition, authoritarianism, and histories of political resistance that inform our present.

Out of Bounds: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Sports

(42:42) “There’s so many things in sports competitions–whether it’s team sports or individual sports– so many factors that make it so wildly unfair, and yet we are splitting hairs and trying to count molecules of testosterone thinking that that’s going to be the final stamp on fairness when there is access to clean air, clean water, food, access to equipment, lessons, coaches, school districts. That does not level the playing field.” – CJ Jones

Life Under Threat: Fighting the Rise of Anti-Trans Fascism – Keynote

(13:33) “In the context of authoritarianism, the regret narrative is not a naive misunderstanding that can be corrected by citing additional studies; instead, it is a calculated tactic to normalize non-trans life as the only emotionally healthy and acceptable option.” -Toby Beauchamp

Life Under Threat: Fighting the Rise of Anti-Trans Fascism – Keynote

“Life Under Threat: Fighting the Rise of Anti-Trans Fascism” symposium keynote talk given by Toby Beauchamp on March 12, 2026 at UC Davis. This symposium examines transnational fascist formations: how do institutions and nations regulate gendered bodies and identities? How do state agents, normative logics, and community practices overlap in discussions of survival, care, regret, and reproduction? Treating fascism and violence as processes, logics, and techniques of control, the speakers of this symposium situate trans health, medicine, ethics, and activism in conversations about bodies, identities, and systems of power.

Anti-Trans Violence and the Rise of Reactionary Regimes

(34:03)”This goes into the larger importance of having a robust politics around solidarity based on material conditions, rather than really having very essentialist ideas about what gender or sex is.” -Sayan Bhattacharya

Anti-Trans Violence and the Rise of Reactionary Regimes

This panel, featuring Sayan Bhattacharya, Greta LaFleur, and Cole Rizki appeared as a part of a two-panel symposium on March 12, 2026 at UC Davis, “Life Under Threat: Fighting the Rise of Anti-Trans Fascism.” This symposium examines transnational fascist formations: how do institutions and nations regulate gendered bodies and identities? How do state agents, normative logics, and community practices overlap in discussions of survival, care, regret, and reproduction? Treating fascism and violence as processes, logics, and techniques of control, the speakers of this symposium situate trans health, medicine, ethics, and activism in conversations about bodies, identities, and systems of power.

Trans Abolition Organizing

(21:18) “Instead of saying we want to move trans people out of the category of ‘undeserving’, we take the position that no one is disposable. Safety for all means everyone.” -Lamble

Trans Abolition Organizing

This panel, featuring Ash Stephens, Sarah Lamble, and D Dangaran, appeared as a part of a two-panel symposium on March 12, 2026 at UC Davis, “Life Under Threat: Fighting the Rise of Anti-Trans Fascism.” This symposium examines transnational fascist formations: how do institutions and nations regulate gendered bodies and identities? How do state agents, normative logics, and community practices overlap in discussions of survival, care, regret, and reproduction? Treating fascism and violence as processes, logics, and techniques of control, the speakers of this symposium situate trans health, medicine, ethics, and activism in conversations about bodies, identities, and systems of power.

Vital Relations: Rethinking Trans Health and Medicine (Panel Two)

(47:14) “Let’s take that hyper-visibility of trans people, of trans kids, of trans healthcare, and turn it into these larger questions about economic redistribution.” -Kadji Amin

Vital Relations: Rethinking Trans Health and Medicine (Panel Two)

This panel, featuring Kadji Amin and Jacob Moses, is part two of a two panel symposium held at UC Davis on February 25, 2026. This symposium brings together scholars, clinicians and activists to examine how trans health has been shaped and contested through medicine, ethics, and political struggle. Both conversations situate the contemporary moment’s heightened scrutiny, backlash, and regulatory intervention within broader histories of trans medicine–from early gatekeeping and experimental care to community-led health activism to the current reconfiguration of “evidence,” risk, and responsibility. What counts as care? Who gets to define it? How is medical authority produced and challenged?

Vital Relations: Rethinking Trans Health and Medicine (Panel One)

(37:20) “That to me is the exciting promise of transness for us all–we can think about different ways of relating to each other, different ways to think about power…” – Ruth Pearce

Vital Relations: Rethinking Trans Health and Medicine (Panel One)

This panel, featuring Ruth Pearce and Tankut Atuk, is part one of a two panel symposium held at UC Davis on February 25, 2026. This symposium brings together scholars, clinicians and activists to examine how trans health has been shaped and contested through medicine, ethics, and political struggle. Both conversations situate the contemporary moment’s heightened scrutiny, backlash, and regulatory intervention within broader histories of trans medicine–from early gatekeeping and experimental care to community-led health activism to the current reconfiguration of “evidence,” risk, and responsibility. What counts as care? Who gets to define it? How is medical authority produced and challenged?

Out of Bounds: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Sports

(42:42) “There’s so many things in sports competitions–whether it’s team sports or individual sports– so many factors that make it so wildly unfair, and yet we are splitting hairs and trying to count molecules of testosterone thinking that that’s going to be the final stamp on fairness when there is access to clean air, clean water, food, access to equipment, lessons, coaches, school districts. That does not level the playing field.” – CJ Jones

Out of Bounds: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Sports

“Out of Bounds” is a panel conversation featuring M. Aziz, CJ Jones, Anima Adjepong, held at UC Davis on October 14, 2026. This symposium analyzes sports as a flashpoint in debates over gender, race, and nation. Who gets to play–and who decides the rules? From trans and intersex athletes to the broader politics of “fairness,” panelists discuss struggles over athletics. As the fixation on trans athletes intensifies, we discuss who gets centered, sidelined, and scrutinized, and how this relates to broader cultural anxieties and political shifts.

Trans Abolition Keynote with Nat Raja and Mijke Van Der Drift

(25:10) “Inclusion comes at the price of disempowerment. Disempowerment is necessary, because knowledge (about duress, social pressure, economic marginalisation) that needs to be considered hinders the top-down operation of power.”
(Raja and Van Der Drift, 2024, p. 87)

Trans Abolition Keynote with Nat Raja and Mijke Van Der Drift

This keynote, delivered on April 10, 2025 at UC Davis, features Nat Raja and Mijke Van Der Drift in conversation about their 2024 book, Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds.