Organized Transphobia in Right-Wing-Times

Part of the Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminar Series.

*Please note that this seminar will be held via Zoom. Please register your place in advance. Registration will close at 09.00 on Monday 2 February 2026.

Dr Alyosxa Tudor is Reader in Gender Studies and the Chair of the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS University of London. Their work connects trans and queer feminist approaches with transnational feminism and postcolonial studies. Alyosxa’s main research interest lies in analysing (knowledge productions on) migrations, diasporas and borders in relation to critiques of Eurocentrism and to processes of gendering and racialisation.

While anti-gender mobilizations most often act in the name of conservative, right-wing or fascist politics, ‘gender crit’ articulations are more politically ambiguous. This is particularly apparent when considering anti-trans/arguments within feminism, where left and right arguments coalesce around claims to protect women and children from danger. While asking broader questions on leftist/liberal complicity in rising fascism, Alyosxa cautions against blanketly understanding all ‘gender crits’ as fascists. Rather, they are interested in what ‘gender crit’ thought, especially on the left, does for fascism. Alyosxa argues that ‘gender critical’ left positions offer a key case study that helps us theorize the role of the left and of Liberalism in ‘right-wing times’ more generally. A ‘right-wing times’ framework is useful because it redirects attention to the discursive boundaries of the debate rather than the positionality of the speakers involved. Both in left/liberal and right-wing iterations, anti-gender and anti-trans politics frequently overlap with anti-immigration and anti-Palestine rhetoric and attacks on fields of knowledge like critical race theory and intersectionality.

The UCCGS Gender Research Seminars offer academics and graduate students an opportunity to present their work-in-progress to a multi-disciplinary audience interested in gender, in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Seminars are held on specified days during Michaelmas and Lent and everyone is welcome to attend.

The seminars are organised and chaired by Sigal Spigel.