Abstract
In this talk, I’ll share some of the key arguments from my book, Disorienting Phenomenology: Queer Space and Trans Life to flesh out a trans theory of space. What does it feel like to inhabit space(s) as a trans person? What can trans experience teach us about the logics governing space? How can we queer space to transform its dominant, ‘common sense’ meanings and the oppressive socio-political orders that attend them? To answer these questions, I thread together philosophies of space and embodiment (specifically phenomenology – the study of perception and consciousness) with geographic theories of social and spatial difference. I pursue an intersectional theory of relational space that begins from the experience of those minoritized and marginalized in space through logics of race, gender, sexuality, and disability. I do so with the aim of developing an anti-oppressive knowledge and praxis of space.
About the speaker
Dr. Eden Kinkaid (they/them) is a postdoctoral fellow in Human Geography at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, and is a 2026 Lambda Literary Fellow for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. They work at the intersection of geography, gender studies, and philosophy. Their research and writing focus on themes of embodiment, epistemology, space, and queer/trans experience, through the lens of phenomenology and poststructuralist theories of subjectivity and space. Eden has served as editor at you are here: the journal of creative geography and Gender, Place and Culture, and is a co-founder and operator of GEOZONe (The Geography Zine Organizing Network).