Sunday July 19th – on Zoom – Margo Wilson “Chronicling the Lives of Trans Pioneers”
For me, anthropological inquiry is about participant observation and the stories people tell about themselves and the world in which they live. As the quintessential outsider, the heart of this approach is an obligation to stay open and curious about new ways of thinking and being, to carefully observe the behaviours of others, to listen to the stories they tell about themselves, to participate in their experience of the world, and to create understanding through that knowledge and experience. This approach has taken me to a remote rural village and a leprosy mission in northwest Bangladesh, as well as a shelter for abandoned women and children in Dhaka, the capital city. Most recently, it has lead me to chronicling the lives of pioneers in the transgender community here at home.
Margot Wilson is an anthropologist who, after 28 years on the faculty at the University of Victoria, retired and opened a small, independent publishing company (TransGender Publishing www.transgenderpublishing.ca), the only Canadian publishing company that specializes in publishing transgender life histories. Recently, Margot has taken over responsibility for Stephanie Castle Publications (www.stephaniecastle.ca), which publishes transgender fiction, and Perceptions Press (www.perceptionspress.ca), which focuses on innovative and avant-garde fiction and non-fiction on transgender subjects and/or written by trans authors.
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