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...

Cannot wait for this!

Earthstars appearing nearby. I’m taking it as a good omen--in a world seemingly so short of such things …

Remake the world with neurodivergence at its heart! Leon J. Hilton's Counter-cartographies: Neurodivergence and the Errancies of Performance is out today! www.upress.umn.edu/978151790903...

I’m waiting for a car repair. I see an older woman walking with a walker, smoking a cigarette, and blaring Phil Collins from her phone for all and sundry. And I think, the poetry of the everyday, even beneath the 8am sun, is astounding.

y'all I just saw this headline in Science and now I can't unsee it--both for its truth value and for its dad-joke quality.

A magical moth moment. Look at that tuft!

How might we do philosophy *with* and *for* trans people, & *in* the places where trans people are? How might work with interviews, archives, & community phenomenologies be philosophical? Could trans philosophy open the way for a revolution in philosophical method? blog.apaonline.org/2025/08/06/h...

Fungal romance #fungifriends #mushrooms

These grow in the same spot year to year. Delighted to see them back!

Nibbles

I've never used a library and archives as hard as I have those at Olin, here at Cornell, these past two years. How do I thank the whole team??? (1982 image below for effect) digital.library.illinois.edu/items/47a88c...

Years ago, I visited the Leslie Feinberg Library at @Ben Power's @Sexual Minorities Archives. I snapped a photo of the philosophy shelf. Plato, Socrates, Foucault, and @Shannon Winnubst. Such a leap there that for a long time had been unthinkable. And trans philosophy still off in the distance.

This full-length study of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is pretty fascinating. It answered a ton of my questions, and, as all good books should, left me with a lot of new ones. For the group's account of itself, see www.thesisters.org. nyupress.org/978147982036...

Did y'all know that legal protection for sexual orientation was first considered in New York City in 1971 ... but that it did not become law until 1986? It took fifteen years... in NYC (of all places)! And it only went statewide in 2002 (thirty+ years later). *thinking about work that takes time*

From CHOICE reviews: Zurn "is a wonderful stylist," "sections & subsections are organizational genius." Focused on "the poetics of the this-ness & here-ness of each other," Zurn has created "somehow both a beach read & serious academic literature." "Essential. Advanced undergrads through faculty."

Slug respite with rusulla!

1980 underhand term for assimilationist queers? WAX FRUIT. amazing.

Ever wonder how we started using "cis" to refer to nontrans ppl? In a new article, I briefly recount cis' origins, before tracking how it got mainstreamed. I pay special attention to the citational injustices & intersectional silences whereby cis became what it is now. ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/fp...

Excited to see this out! And honored to be a part of the project. Much love to @being.transinphilosophy.org for the vision, creativity, and honesty behind this.

Did you know… humans have 46 chromosomes but some species of ferns have 1400+? #ferns

The 1st Binghamton (NY) pride was 1983. They asked the mayor to designate June 24 as Gay Pride Day. She refused. They pressed on. The celebration was not a parade but a candlelight vigil after dark. Attendees wore dark clothes & masks to mark centuries of invisibility & to protect themselves.