Gender, politics and knowledge: an ethnography of the action of trans people and travestis in the university context

Resumo

Marked by a context known for advances in policies surrounding trans people and travestis, concomitant with the persist of transphobic violence, this research focus in the university context, seeking – through fieldwork in events organized by trans activists – to understand how the university itself is constructed as an opening (or not) to experimentation in terms of gender, articulating three main conceptual keys – gender diversity, political action and knowledge production. I conclude that there are a series of tensions between an “in” and “out” of university, with debates mobilized by these subjects that emphasizes the importance of intersectionality and the need to go beyond the restrict architectural spaces of this environment. The university is here seem as both a productive (and relatively safe) space and a space tensioned by institutionalized violence, “privileges” and a model of knowledge production that often excludes historically marginalized people. These political engagements often emphasizes the dimensions of experience and body.