Viviane Namaste

Dr. Viviane Namaste is a Canadian feminist scholar, author, researcher and professor, whose work focuses on health and transsexualism, more specifically HIV/AIDS and being seropositive.[1] Namaste's research focuses on health, sex work,[2] transsexuality, transgenderism, bisexuality,[3] and swinger communities.

She has commented that research that maintains the gender binary can exclude communities.[4] Her research examines the involvement of public health in HIV prevention among swinger groups in Montreal.[3] Namaste has been noted for criticizing Judith Butler in her work Undoing Gender by discussing how transsexuality intersects someone's identity and how it attributes to the treatment of transsexuals and more specifically their murder.[5]

The feminist journal, Hypatia, has called Namaste's work, "extremely important" because she "excels at focusing readers' attention on the most marginalized of transsexuals, at analyzing the ways in which different systems of oppression work together."[6] Namaste considers activism more important than work within the humanities.[7]

Biography

Namaste graduated from Carleton University in 1989 with a BA and continued her education at York University, earning an MA in Sociology. She then completed her doctoral at Université du Québec à Montréal in Semiotics and Linguistics.[8][9] She worked within CACTUS-Montreal, where she co-founded ASTT(e)Q (Action santé travesties et transsexuel(le)s du Québec), a community-based health project working with marginalized trans people on issues including HIV, sex work, and access to health care,[10] and ACT UP Paris.[9] In 2001, she received the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for her book entitled, Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People.[11] That same year, Namaste was also a director in the documentary Madame Lauraine's Transexual Touch which deals with transsexual sex workers as well as sexual health and clientele.[12]

She joined the Simone de Beauvoir Institute (SDBI) in 2002 as a full-time faculty member[13] and in 2006 took over as principal of SDBI.[14] By 2009, Namaste was an associate professor and the Research Chair in HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[11] In 2009, she was awarded the "Canadian Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights", which is awarded jointly by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch.[15]

In 2012, Namaste led a strike with SDBI faculty in order to protest tuition increases.[16][17] In 2013, she was called as an official intervenor in a hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada[18] on whether the ban on solicitation, prohibition of brothelss and criminality of making a living from prostitution violate the Charter of Rights.[19]

Published work

Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People

Invisible Lives evaluates the erasure of transgender individuals by medical psychiatry.[20] It also draws on the daily lived-experiences of transgendered individuals and describes how their identity permeates every facet of their life from obtaining housing to health care.[20] The Library Journal wrote that Invisible Lives has "broken new ground with one of the first sociological studies of the TS/TG community."[20]

Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism

This book utilizes case studies as a means to analyze elements such as Human rights and Prostitution in looking at transsexual politics in Quebec and Canada. Namaste asks what makes someone a woman and whether male to female transsexuals should be included in women's spaces.[6] Namaste also explores how gender and sex are defined in our culture and discusses the everyday manner in which transsexuals face discrimination.[4] In the end, she recommends that feminists "integrate transsexual politics and theory into their work."[6] One criticism that the journal, Hypatia, makes of the writing in Sex Change, Social Change is that Namaste is "at times antagonistic towards transsexual and transgender activists and theorists who work within gay, lesbian, or queer frameworks."[6] Canadian Dimension writes that her book makes the subject matter "accessible to those unacquainted with the current body of work on transsexuality."[4]

C'était du spectacle! L'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal, 1955-1985

This book explores the lives of fourteen transsexual cabaret dancers.[21] It discusses how transsexuals and transvestites were largely responsible for Cabaret's culture.[21] Looking at the social changes that occurred in the 60's and 70's in Quebec, this book examines working conditions for these cabaret dancers as well as police abuse of power.[21]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "New Socialist Magazine, Addressing the Politics of Social Erasure: Making the Lives of Transsexual People Visible - An Interview With Viviane Namaste". Newsocialist.org. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  2. ↑ "On Women, Vice and Vagrancy in Canada". Walrus TV. 2015-01-29. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  3. 1 2 Gedeon, Julie (2009). "Looking Out for the Overlooked". Concordia University Magazine Features. Concordia. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  4. 1 2 3 Poole, Katherine M. (2008). "Getting Past Identity: A Fresh Look at Issues in Transsexuality". Canadian Dimension. 42 (6): 42. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  5. ↑ Namaste, Viviane. 2009. "Undoing Theory: The "Transgender Question" and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory." Hypatia 24 (3):pp. 11-32
  6. 1 2 3 4 Hale, C. Jacob (2008). "Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism". Hypatia. 23 (1): 204–207. doi:10.2979/hyp.2008.23.1.204. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  7. ↑ Crawford, Lucas (2009). "Re-Fashioning the Architectonics of Gender". ESC: English Studies in Canada. 35 (2): 18–23. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  8. 1 2 3 "Dr. Viviane Namaste - Faculty of Arts and Science - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada". Artsandscience.concordia.ca. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  9. 1 2 Burnett, Richard (20 August 2009). "Hot Shots: Professor Viviane Namaste: Viviane Namaste". Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Hour Community. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Supporting Trans People Since 1998...". Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec. ASTTEQ. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  11. 1 2 "2009 Canadian Recipient: Viviane Namaste". Toronto, Ontario, Canada: AIDs Law Canada. 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  12. ↑ "Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch". cinema politica. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  13. ↑ "History". Concordia. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Simone de Beauvoir Institute. 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Q & A: The future of women's studies". Montreal, Quebec, Canada: The Concordian. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Syms, Shawn (12 July 2009). "Trans academic wins human rights award". Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Daily Xtra. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  16. ↑ Beeston, Laura (10 March 2012). "Institute Sends Ministry of Education Invitation for Debate". The Link. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Chevalier, Andréanne (16 April 2013). "Luttes sociales, luttes féministes" (in French). Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Journal Metro. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Montreal prof seeks Supreme Court ruling on sex work". Montreal, Quebec, Canada: CBC News. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  19. ↑ la Reine, Bedford C. (13 June 2013). "Procès: décriminalisation de la prostitution à l'ordre du jour". Montreal, Quebec, Canada: La Presse. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  20. 1 2 3 Ingram, Jeff (November 2000). "Invisible Lives (Book Review)". Library Journal. 125 (18): 120. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  21. 1 2 3 Boisclair, Isabelle (2008). "C'était du spectacle. L'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal 1955-1985 (review)". University of Toronto Quarterly (in French). 77 (1): 639–641. doi:10.1353/utq.0.0002. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  22. ↑ "Viviane Namaste - Aids Research Concordia". HIV/AIDS Concordia. Concordia University. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  23. ↑ "Faculty". Concordia.ca. Retrieved 2015-10-17.

Further reading

External links

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