With Hampshire College closing, I can't help but rethink *How We Make Each Other*. I thought it would be the 1st of many books telling AMAZING stories of queer/trans life at Hampshire & the 5 Colleges. Weird to think it could be the last! @dukepress.bsky.social www.dukeupress.edu/how-we-make-...

Hi Folks, FEAST (@feministphilosophy.bsky.social) is calling for self-nominations to fill a full roster of positions (by June 5th!). Sign up if you feel called! The group would warmly welcome your leadership. All Best, Perry (with Alison Reiheld) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Coming soon! The "Trans Philosophy" special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly! Co-edited with Talia Mae Bettcher, and featuring Jacob Hale on the cover. Will post again when the links go live next week, but was too excited to wait. @dukepress.bsky.social

I woke up eager to ask: What queer book saved your life? Or was there any book that, at a really critical moment in your life, gave you strength, threw you a life preserver, shifted your core, helped you say "no" and "yes" to different things? @thisqueerbook.com thisqueerbook.com/stone-butch-...

Had the delight! of joining This Queer Book Saved My Life podcast to talk about the book that most changed mine. We talk Leslie Feinberg, growing up conservative/religious, & why "butch" mattered. Also a quick preview of my new book *Cisgender.* @thisqueerbook.com thisqueerbook.com/stone-butch-...

Final day to get *Cisgender* or *How We Make Each Other* or SO MANY OTHER GOOD BOOKS from Duke UP at 40% off!

Re: the path to mestiza consciousness, Anzaldua says: Grab your backpack. Throw out the maps and money. Keep the journal, address book, knife, can opener, & eyebrow pencil. Add bones, bark, herbs, feather, snakeskin, tape recorder, drum, etc. EYEBROW PENCIL. Discuss. www.auntlute.com/borderlands

In his new book, @perryzurn.bsky.social really dives into whether or not "cisgender" makes sense. When does it work and when doesn't it? Where did it come from and should we keep using it? Despite a full-episode I still didn't have enough time to get all my questions in! youtube.com/shorts/VKZJU...

On @thegailyshow.org today to talk about *Cisgender: Disorienting a Category* (pre-order now; out in July)! Loved being in conversation with John Parker! @dukepress.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=fclP...

These are the 4 books that most changed how I thought about & wrote *How We Make Each Other: Trans Life at the Edge of the University*. I'd love to talk more about that process. You can get it (& pre-order Cisgender) from @dukepress.bsky.social 40% off, SPRING26. www.dukeupress.edu/how-we-make-...

After many years in this place, I finally hung something on my office wall. throwback to my college days. I never smoked, but otherwise vibe still just as apt!

A first for me! Wrinkled thimble morel, I think…

New (edited) excerpt from *Curious Minds*! From the chapter called "Curiosity as Edgework" ... in which I argue for a socio-relational account of curiosity (which otherwise is typically characterized as psycho-individual). Hope folks enjoy! thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/curiosity-is...

Big brother nailing it with their ads for me…

Thanks @Cornell for spotlighting *How We Make Each Other,* which I finished there. & shout-out to Kim Haines-Eitzen who asked the stunning question: “What do we (over)simplify in order to complexify something else?” It has stuck with me ever since. societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu/news/perry-z...

Spring resin…

I went to college at a place like this. We couldn't say "feminism" let alone "queer." I was put on academic probation for dating 'gay'. Had my library card threatened for ordering Feinberg. I won't downplay the costs. But! It didn't take the queer out of us. It couldn't. truthout.org/articles/tex...

The universe was listening! @dukepress.bsky.social posted the intro to *Cisgender.* You get to read vignettes about my grandmother & Leslie Feinberg & Audre Lorde... & wrestle with what they do to the cis category. You also get a peak at why disorientation is my framework of choice. bit.ly/4vKd53u

Hot take: phones have ruined the gym. The number of people who sit there watching videos for ten even twenty minutes on a single weight machine is mind blowing.

In "Cisgender," @perryzurn.bsky.social traces the story of how cis entered contemporary gender lexicons, defamiliarizing and reimagining the term at the same time. Read the intro for free now: bit.ly/4vKd53u

Thanks @AndreaPitts for this! "With humor & tenderness, Zurn challenges readers to revisit the complexity of an undertheorized term" "explor[ing] the lives of gender variant & conforming peoples, systems of power, & the many possibilities for connection in shared struggle." dukeupress.edu/cisgender

AU's honors program started in 1959. One of its professors described its objective thus: "to make the student think strangely." Defamiliarize habits of thought, & thereby equip students to critically engage across difference & construct meaningful beliefs of their own. I like it: THINK STRANGELY.

having long ago relinquished the faith of my youth, I've not considered myself a person of faith. but lately I have been impressed with how much damn faith, and hope, and love research & writing require. you have to believe something is there that you can't see (no one can see).

Last weekend, I had the incredible experience of keynoting SUNY Stony Brook's grad conference on "Curiosity and Care." I actually gave my very first talk, as a young grad student, at Stony Brook. An honor to return & learn from all these grads doing amazing work! www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/engl...

All, I recently became aware of this book set entitled WOMAN: IN ALL AGES AND IN ALL COUNTRIES (1907). Grandiose indeed. And of course, none of its 10 volumes was written by a woman.

in the annals of university genders...

Finally! crocuses

You can now pre-order *Cisgender: Disorienting a Category* (out in July) for $20 from Duke UP with a 30% off! Code: E26CGNDR. Really grateful, too, for these amazing blurbs from Susan Stryker and C. Riley Snorton! dukeupress.edu/cisgender

I'm excited to teach a "Nonhuman Philosophies" grad course this fall. I'd actually like to focus it not only on the nonhuman, but the nonanimal. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's new *Theory of Water* is one I'm thinking about including. Would welcome other ideas! www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2533-t...

Look who is reading this book with me! (Or teaching me?) Del McWhorter, Unbecoming Persons (2025), pictured with stink bug.

The ice is falling. I’m shoveling our place. And the 92 year old neighbor’s. And another neighbor walks up and hands me a steaming loaf of fresh baked bread. How to even comprehend that I am alive for this. For now. Today. And how quickly, and cruelly, those todays can be taken.

Proofs for *Cisgender: Disorienting a Category*! Almost done!

Once, I was on-campus interviewing. We were walking to a restaurant & I was trying to be engaging in conversation (& avoid other people on the sidewalk). & BAM! I hit a parking meter in the face, while my limbs wrapped it in an awkward embrace. This was a great intro to me. #on-campus-memories

So overwhelmed by the current moment. Wondering when we're just all in the streets until something changes. But also knowing that each of us has to know and use our gifts to the hilt. Teaching and writing the stories that can free us is part of that for me.

In 2023, Elon Musk banned the words cis and cisgender from Twitter. That's when I started writing this book. What could be so powerful, dangerous, & unsettling about these words? Where did they come from? And how might we reimagine them today? Available for preorder: www.amazon.com/Cisgender-Di...

Honored to make some "Best of 2025" lists this month! Huge thanks to @dukepress.bsky.social for giving *How We Make Each Other: Trans Life at the Edge of the University* a home.

In January, I start teaching a grad seminar on disability justice. I'd welcome word of any favorite pieces/books you might have! [image of a stack of books in disability studies--books I'm thinking with, though not necessarily teaching]

In which a blue butterfly erases my to-do list …

Can't believe my twin and I spent almost a year like this!

American University was founded as a Methodist institution and maintains ties to this day. Digging into that history, I found this lovely invitation by the chaplain in 1962: "No Office Hours. Come When Unexpected." Home and office addresses were then given.

Exactly the sort of thing you want to find in the archives …

Really excited to be sharing work on Cornell's own trans histories tonight! As part of trans awareness week.

Whenever I make up a word (we need more for the things I think about), copyeditors say, "Hey. That's not a word. Use a dictionary word." I want to reply: "Hey. How do you think words got in the dictionary?!" What is this regime where we can't publish new words? Where did it come from? whywhywhy

No but really... all you writers, how DO you make yourself sit still for these copy edits on a full manuscript? I'm already a heavily distractible person, but I become a literal dandelion tuft in the breeze with these.

deargod I love writing, but I do not love copy editing. calling on this blewitt to give me strength today.

A giant cyclops puffball guttating this morning…

It’s drizzling and an older woman, with dyed red hair but deep grey roots, stands leaning against her weed wacker in a blue raincoat. She tenderly snips the tiniest edges of her sidewalk, while her bare feet turn slowly green with the cuttings. Her stance infinite.

.... but also what if I get buried alive by email?

Also learned a lot and felt a lot with this book recently. Thanks to a friend for the recommendation! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/695816...