Julia Serano
Julia Serano | |
|---|---|
 Julia Serano speaks at the GLBT History Museum, San Francisco | |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from Columbia University |
| Occupation(s) | Evolutionary and developmental biology researcher |
| Employer | UC Berkeley |
| Known for | Writer, spoken word performer, trans bi activist, biologist |
| Website | www |
Julia Michelle Serano is a transgender American writer, spoken-word performer, trans-bi activist, and biologist. Serano currently lives in Oakland, California and is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Her second book, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, was published on September 10, 2013 by Seal Press.[1]
Her work has appeared in queer, feminist, and pop-culture magazines, including Bitch, Clamor, Kitchen Sink, LiP, make/shift, and Transgender Tapestry. Excerpts of her work have appeared in The Believer and The San Francisco Chronicle, and on NPR.[2]
Based on her insights into gender, Serano has been invited to speak about transgender and trans women’s issues at numerous universities, often at queer-, feminist-, psychology-, and philosophy-themed conferences. Her writings have also been used in teaching materials in gender studies courses across the United States.[3] She has coined several terms that are now used in gender studies courses such as cissexual assumption, oppositional sexism and effemimania.
Early life
Julia Serano first consciously recognized in herself a desire to be female during the late 1970s when she was 11 years old. A few years later, she began crossdressing. At first, she crossdressed secretively, but eventually she started identifying herself openly as a "male crossdresser." Serano attended her first support group for crossdressers in 1994 while living in Kansas.[4][5]
Soon afterward, Serano moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she met her wife, Dani, in 1998. Around this time, Serano began identifying as not only a crossdresser but also as transgender and bigender. In 2001, she began medically transitioning and identifying as a trans woman.[5]
Other endeavors
Serano is a poetry slam champion and has given spoken-word performances at universities as well as at events such as the National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco Pride Dyke March and Trans March stages, Ladyfest, outCRY!, Femme 2006 and in The Vagina Monologues.[3] Serano is also the lyricist-guitarist-vocalist for the pop trio Bitesize.[6]
Serano[7] organizes and hosts GenderEnders, a performance series that features the work of transgender, intersex, and genderqueer artists and allies. It has produced 20 shows. Serano received a grant to curate "The Penis Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds," a spoken-word event, as part of the 2007 National Queer Arts Festival.[3]
Serano is also a biologist who works as a researcher at UC Berkeley in the field of evolutionary and developmental biology. She received her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University.[3] Among her discoveries is K10 transport/localisation element (TLS) in Drosophila melanogaster.
Works
Books
- Either/Or. Switch Hitter Press. 2002. OCLC 58926464.
- Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Seal Press. 2007. ISBN 9781580051545. OCLC 81252738.
- Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. 2013. ISBN 1580055044.
Anthologies
- Friedman, Jaclyn; Valenti, Jessica, eds. (2008). "Why nice guys finish last". Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape. Berkeley, Calif.: Seal Press. pp. 227–240. ISBN 9781580052573. OCLC 227574524.
- Diamond, Morty, ed. (2011). "Cherry Picking". Trans/Love: Radical Sex, Love & Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary. San Francisco: Manic D Press. ISBN 9781933149561. OCLC 709681495.
References
- ^ "Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
- ^ "Serano, Julia". Litquake. Archived from the original on 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
- ^ a b c d "Julia Serano Renaissance Woman!". Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ^ Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Seal Press, 2007.
- ^ a b "welcome to switch hitter dot net!". Juliaserano.com. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
- ^ Serano, Julia. "Bitesize! -hammering the final nail into indie rock's coffin-". Bitesize!. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- ^ "Bisexuality does not reinforce the gender binary". Curve.
External links
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- American biochemists
- American spoken word artists
- Columbia University alumni
- Bisexual women
- Bisexual writers
- Bisexual rights activists
- Evolutionary biologists
- LGBT scientists from the United States
- LGBT musicians from the United States
- LGBT writers from the United States
- Living people
- Slam poets
- Transfeminists
- Transgender and transsexual musicians
- Transgender and transsexual women
- Transgender and transsexual writers
- Transgender rights activists
- Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Postmodern feminists
- Women molecular biologists
- Women evolutionary biologists
- Women biochemists
- American molecular biologists
- LGBT scientists