Literature as a Basis for Imagining and Building a Future for Black Trans People

Project Title

“Merely a future”: An Unkindness of Ghosts, and Forming Black Trans Futures Amidst Plantation Geographies in the End of the World

Faculty Mentor(s)

Project Description

This research project uses An Unkindness of Ghosts as a literary basis to uncover how we might imagine and build a future for Black trans people. I argue that the importance of Black trans futures is underscored by the anti-Black world that tries to deny the very possibility of a future to Black people, and which robs Black trans people in particular of life (on the levels of the material, narrative, ontological, social, and others, all of which are interconnected). I build off of Katherine McKittrick and Sylvia Wynter’s work to place the rootedness of Black identity within the plantation geography, and see plot and narrative as modes of resistance through which we can reclaim space for Black (trans) life, giving our oppressive geographies a new future.

What is your favorite aspect of the research process?

I like getting to go to the library and have a reason to go look through books, and always be able to relate them back to my project. I also love talking more to the research librarians (they’re all really cool!), and my mentor(s), it makes my entire process feel closer to as grounded and world-centered as I hope that it is.

How has working with your mentor impacted the development of your research project?

Working with my mentor has been very helpful in being able to get a bigger picture of Black studies scholarship around the topics and questions I am interested in. Without this bigger picture (and knowledge of key authors, texts, terms, histories, etc.), I would be a much worse researcher and produce a worse project. Additionally, it is really helpful to me personally to work with someone who has a similar ethos within the academy as me, to be able to see someone who can model what my life as an academic might be like while still maintaining and upholding my values and integrity as a person.

What advice would you give to a younger student wanting to get involved in research in your field?

I think to not take yourself too seriously, or aim at being the best. It might sound strange, but I believe that it’s only when you take a step back – from placing yourself in the middle of this novel-like narrative of progression where everything has to contain the upmost effort and polish, and from specifically aiming at being the best – that doing something that really matters in Black studies or being good (or even the best) at what you do becomes possible. You’re only one person, but it’s when you humble yourself to your limitations that you can actually push yourself to do your best, by aiming towards something you can actually achieve.