Course Information

This course serves as the first transgender focused gender studies course in the Gender Studies Programme. The course will introduce and discuss the concepts and theories of transness, transgender and otherness using some of the Western literature while incorporating and focusing on the Asian perspectives with Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines as focus.

This course will also focus on narratives and history of transness and otherness in 3 Asian contexts: Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. The course will look into the evolution of gender identities, roles and expressions and sexualities in these societies and weave the intersections in these narratives. We will study the current situations of trans, non-binary and "other" people in these societies and how their transness and otherness impede them from being fully integrated in their societies. We look into ways colonisation (Hong Kong, Philippines) and non-colonisation (Thailand) affect their transness and collectiveness. Finally, we hope to invite social justice allies through this course to help us map action plans to share with them so they can be helped in improving their states in their respective societies.