Forum Lectures #31: Marquis Bey

The Story of a Theory: Black Trans Feminism and Beyond

This lecture will provide, in a sense, the story or narrative surrounding the writing and thinking of Black Trans Feminism.

It will detail where the thoughts and ideas came from, how they were arrived at, and what happened in their aftermath. After this, the lecture will discuss where the author’s work is going in light of the publication of Black Trans Feminism – namely, to the nonbinary. To discuss this, the author will detail how society and how community have fed these thoughts, in particular a more expansive, robust understanding of the society and community.

About Marquis Bey

Marquis Bey (they/them, or any pronouns) is a Professor of Black Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University. Their work concerns trans and nonbinary studies, black feminist theory, abolition, and critical theory. They are the author of Black Trans Feminism and Cistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender (both published with Duke University Press, 2022). They are currently at work on a project entitled A Nonbinary Life.

Forum Lectures

Forum Lectures is a series of lectures by Danish and international thinkers and cultural workers reflecting on how art co-forms commonality. Forum Lectures bring thinking and shared study back to the university and invite public lectures on the last Tuesday of every month from 17:00 – 19:00.

The initiative is hosted by the research group of the New Carlsberg Foundation research centre Art as Forum. Our researchers are occupied by a.o. the infrastructures of the arts, collective modes of production, the entanglement of political theory and aesthetic theory, assembling curation strategies, dematerialized art, acts of strategic separatism and temporality in digital art.

The lecture is free and open to everyone interested.