Trans memory and archival activism

Description

Trans erasure is the systematic exclusion of trans people from public discourse and memory. Trans memory activism counters trans erasure by creating, collecting, organizing and spreading trans narratives. To claim for the “right to memory” (Anna Reading) and biography (Juri Lotman) for trans people appears to be a fundamental and even preliminary condition in the struggle for rights.  In particular, trans activism acts on what Ann Rigney calls “differential memorability” – elaborating on Judith Butler’s “differential grievability” –, namely the uneven access to memory and public recognition.  In order to counter trans erasure, trans activists draw on genres, media, textualities and memorial practices. However, the access to discursive genres and practices depends on the socio-semiotic dynamics that regulate the production, circulation and interpretation of texts
and cultural objects. In my contribution I will investigate how trans memory activism appropriate genres and practices of memory, incorporating them as tools in and for activism, in particular focusing on the creation of archives or collection in archives on trans memories.
In doing this, I will join a recent scholarship in memory and social movement studies (see for example De Kosnik et al. 2019), which focuses on the use of the digital in and for trans activism, in particular in the US and Europe. Yet, my contribution will focus on the case of Argentina and in particular on the Archivo Memoria Trans, an archive set up by trans activists and currently representing one of the most important and significant trans memory archive in Latin America.

Period	2021
Event title	Memory Studies Association: Fifth Annual Conference
Event type	Conference