Wibke Straube - PhD student

Touching the Limits. Utopias of Transgender Embodiment in Contemporary Cinema is a research project in which I inquire spaces of disidentification within Transgender Cinema. In particular, scenes of dancing, dreaming and singing present elements in these films, which I discuss as “exit scapes“. 

The project aims for a theorising of spaces within the films that allow a disruption of the normalising impact, which is part many of these films. I work on trans films from a genderqueer position.

The project is based on queer and trans conceptualisations of embodiment, agency and subjectivity. It  draws on feminist materialist notions of performativity, body and matter. Through discussions on the monstrous and vulnerability the project is in close discussion with postcolonial studies as well as crip theory.

The project is supervised by Prof. Nina Lykke, Prof. Cecilia Åsberg and Prof. Lann Hornscheidt. I work in close collaboration with Fender Schrade, Renate Lorenz and Magdalena Górska.

CV

• 2009 PhD student, Department of Thematic Studies/ Gender Studies, Linköping University. Title: Touching the Limits. Utopias of Transgender Embodiment in Contemporary Cinema, supervised by Prof. Lann Hornscheidt, Prof. Nina Lykke and Prof. Cecilia Åsberg.

• 2002 Master of Arts in Gender and Media Studies at the University of Sussex (with Distinction). Title: Dangerous Minds - Gender Ambiguity, Performativity and Boundaries within Hegemonic and Subcultural Discourses.

• 1998-2001 Gender Studies and New German Literature at Humboldt-University of Berlin and Freie University of Berlin.

• Since 2009 Member of the Posthumanities Hub, Linköping University.

• Since 2004 Member of the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies of Humboldt-University of Berlin

Extended CV

Conference Inputs:

2008, April 3rd/4th, TransBordering: On the Negotiations of Gender Boundaries in Transgender Film and Film Review, Flexible Genders – Transgressive Bodies, International Conference at the Institute for Anglistics and Americanistics, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany.

2009, March 13th/14th, Narration of In/Visibility. Narratives of Trans* Identity in Popular Cinema, Arrangements. Agencements. A-genre-ments - La narration du genre en question, International Conference at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France. 

2009, May 19th, Representing the In-Between – The Crisis of Gender Binaries and De/Normalisation in Press Responses to Transgender Film, The International Symposium on Trans Cinema Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2009, November 18th-20th, In Tune. Trans* Identity in the Counter-Narratives of Fantasy and Music in Film, Transgender Studies and Theories: Building up the Field in a Nordic Context, International Conference at Linköping University, Sweden.

Publications:

• "If you can dream it... – Trans* Gender als Counter-Narrativ im populären Kino". In: Patrick Farges, Cécile Chamayou-Kuhn, Perin Emel Yavuz (ed.) Le Lieu Du Genre. La Narration Comme Espace Performatif Du Genre. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2011, p. 181-196.
• "Space to Practice. A Conversation with Rae Spoon“. In: Hugs and Kisses – Tender to all Gender. Christiane Stefan (eds.), 2. Edition, Hamburg, 2008, p. 46-49. 
• „Mehr(wert) queer. Visuelle Kultur, Kunst und Gender Politiken" – Tagungsbericht/ Conference Review. In: FKW. Zeitschrift für Geschlechterforschung und visuelle Kultur. - Indem es sich weigert eine feste Form anzunehmen – Kunst, Sichtbarkeit, Queer Theory, Heft 45 by Sigrid Adorf and Kerstin Brandes (eds.), Bremen, 2008, p. 89-93.

• "When Yentl becomes Anshel. Dis/Identifikation im Musicalfilm". In: Fiber. Werkstoff für Feminismus und Popkultur. Published by Nylon, Nr. 10, Wien. December 2006, p. 46- 47.

• "Die Traumfabrik der Medien und ihre Körperbilder", Review of the anthology Wie der Film den Körper schuf: Ein Reader zu Gender und Medien by Annette Geiger, Stefanie Rinke, Stevie M. Schmiedel, and Hedwig Wagner (eds.). In: Querelles-Net: Online Reviewmagazine for Women Studies and Gender Studies 20/2006.