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Topic: Trans rights, identity, and new ideas in trans thoughtDates: October 8–10, 2026Location: UC Berkeley and The Lab, San FranciscoCost: Free and open to everyoneReading time: Under 1 minute
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Good first step: Act Attend the Trans Negativity Symposium in October 2026
Check UC Berkeley and The Lab SF websites for the full schedule and event details.
Time and placeWhere this sits+
Our CommunityOthering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley
A free three-day symposium brings together scholars and artists to dig into 'trans negativity' — both the real harms trans people face today and a bold new direction in trans academic thought. Events run October 8–10, 2026, split between UC Berkeley and The Lab in San Francisco. Everything is free and open to the public.
The three days are organized into distinct events. Thursday evening kicks off with author Grace Lavery presenting her new book, in conversation with two other scholars. Friday fills a full day at UC Berkeley with paper presentations and panel discussions featuring nearly twenty scholars and artists working across psychoanalysis, aesthetics, theory, and political history. Saturday afternoon moves to The Lab in San Francisco for a conversation between scholar Jack Halberstam and artist Leila Weefur, preceded by a poetry reading by Cameron Awkward-Rich. The symposium is organized by Be Schierenberg and Simon(e) van Saarloos and is sponsored by more than a dozen UC Berkeley centers and departments, including the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture (CSSC) and the Othering and Belonging Institute.
Register in advance using the link in the sources below — registration is free and gets you program updates as the schedule develops. If you need accessibility support such as ASL (American Sign Language) interpreting, CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captioning, or alternative media formats, reach out to atorrez1000@berkeley.edu at least 7–10 days before the event you plan to attend. For Saturday's event, note the San Francisco address so you can plan your route ahead of time.
October 8–10, 2026
UC Berkeley (October 8–9) and The Lab, 2948 16th Street, San Francisco (October 10)
This symposium grows out of more than two decades of debate in queer theory and connects to ongoing conversations about trans rights, gender policy, and psychoanalytic and aesthetic thought. It is co-sponsored by a wide network of UC Berkeley centers — including Gender and Women's Studies, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, and the Departments of Rhetoric, German, and English — which means related programming, reading groups, and research may be available through those units as well.
Trans people face growing devaluation — in policy, in public discourse, and in the daily withholding of rights and care. At the same time, a new wave of trans thinkers is leaning into that difficulty rather than away from it, drawing on more than two decades of debate in queer theory. This symposium holds both things at once: the real-world harm and the intellectual energy sparked by it. If you want to understand where trans thought is heading — or simply want to be in the room when serious ideas get tested — this is a rare chance to do that for free.
