Transgender Communication Studies - by Jamie C Capuzza & Leland G Spencer

About the Book

This edited collection synthesizes existing transgender communication scholarship, contributes original research, and sets an agenda for future work in human communication, media studies, and rhetorical studies. It is unique in its expansive coverage of the field of communication and the specific focus on transgender lives.

Book Synopsis

Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories brings scholarship in transgender studies to the forefront of the communication discipline. Leland Spencer and Jamie Capuzza provide a broad foundation that documents the evolution of transgender communication studies and challenges fundamental assumptions about the relationship between communication and identity. The contributors explore the political conditions these practices create for persons across the spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations, placing them in the subdisciplines of human communication, media, and public and rhetorical communication. The collection also looks to the future of transgender research with suggestions and directives for continued work. This comprehensive study inspires critical thinking about gender identity and transgender lives from within the vocabularies and methodologies of communication studies.

Review Quotes

"Capuzza and Spencer have assembled a radical and remarkable collection of essays that, when taken together, interrogate the meanings and experiences of transgender identity in relation to key communication contexts (e.g., interpersonal, health organizational, media, rhetorical) and topics (e.g., self-disclosure, intimacy, media representation, workplace protections)."
--Tony Adams, Northeastern Illinois University

[T]his book stands as a testament to how rich and challenging communication research in transgender studies can be once divorced from the limiting assumptions of gay and lesbian studies, paving a way forward as a new wave of public awareness draws attention to transgender issues in media and communication.-- "Journal of Communication"

Capuzza and Spencer have done a wonderful job putting together a collection of essays that explore transgender communication across the communication studies discipline. Building on burgeoning scholarship about transgender communication, the authors of the fourteen chapters offer original insights and plot a course for future research, importantly challenging scholars to take seriously the "T" in the LGBTIQQA acronym. Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories is essential reading for scholars and students interested in communication and gender identity.
-Sara Hayden, University of Montana
--Sara Hayden, University of Montana

I experienced immense joy when I learned about Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories, an edited collection that isindeed 'the first of its kind in the communication discipline.' This collection offersa focused and sincere attempt to understand and advocate on behalf of transgender identitiesand experiences.... This collection will no longer allowcommunication scholars and journal editors to easily avoid these topics.... Continued efforts are thus vital to understand transgender identities and experiences; Transgender Communication Studies will contribute remarkably to these efforts.-- "Women's Studies In Communication"

One of the important things this book does is to acknowledge the significance of the coalition the LGBTQ acronym enacts while also pointing out that as important as understanding our similarities is, we must also attend to the ways in which we differ. It illustrates that although we may share some needs and goals, the contours of those needs and goals may diverge as a result of our specific situations. And so the various chapters in the book remind us that as we work together to effect social change--and to study those efforts--we need to move back and forth between attending to similarities and differences. We need to remember that our specific needs and goals might not be exactly analogous to people in similar, but different, situations, and we need to check in with one another to ensure that the coalition is working to the benefit of everyone and not just a few. This book makes that case for the LGBTQ community; I'm convinced it's a lesson that's important for all social movement activists--and for those of us who study them.-- "QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking"

About the Author

Leland G. Spencer is assistant professor in the Integrative Studies Department at Miami University.

Jamie C. Capuzza is professor in the Department of Communication and director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Mount Union.