Papers by nishant upadhyay
Frontiers, 2023
Over the last few years, trans inclusion in the military has become the focal point for much of t... more Over the last few years, trans inclusion in the military has become the focal point for much of trans activism in the US. Advocates seeking inclusion highlight how participation in the military is often a means of socioeconomic mobility and access to trans-friendly healthcare. Such advocacy hinges upon notions of “good citizenship,” which buttresses US exceptionalism, and concretizes the US empire vis-à-vis militarism. In this paper, we examine a popular documentary, TransMilitary (2018), released in the context of the US–led War on Terror. This documentary serves as a cultural artifact that showcases the deployment of trans service members to Iraq and Afghanistan as a form of inclusion advocacy. Against the backdrop of US imperialism in Asia and Oceania, we extend Asian/American and Pacific Islander feminist analytics to bring into conversation a trans of color abolitionist praxis that centers demilitarization and abolition of the military. In conclusion, we formulate Asian and Pacific Islander trans feminist abolitionist critiques of US trans militarism. A trans abolitionist framework unsettles ideas of liberal inclusion and, instead, centers abolishment of the military for collective trans liberation.
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 2023
Over the last few years, trans inclusion in the military has become the focal
point for much of ... more Over the last few years, trans inclusion in the military has become the focal
point for much of trans activism in the US. Advocates seeking inclusion highlight how
participation in the military is often a means of socioeconomic mobility and access to
trans-friendly healthcare. Such advocacy hinges upon notions of “good citizenship,” which buttresses US exceptionalism, and concretizes the US empire vis-à-vis militarism. In this paper, we examine a popular documentary, TransMilitary (2018), released in the context of the US–led War on Terror. This documentary serves as a cultural artifact that showcases the deployment of trans service members to Iraq and Afghanistan as a form of inclusion advocacy. Against the backdrop of US imperialism in Asia and Oceania, we extend Asian/American and Pacific Islander feminist analytics to bring into conversation a trans of color abolitionist praxis that centers demilitarization and abolition of the military. In conclusion, we formulate Asian and Pacific Islander trans feminist abolitionist critiques of US trans militarism. A trans abolitionist framework unsettles ideas of liberal inclusion and, instead, centers abolishment of the military for collective trans liberation.
Le Tiers-Monde postcolonial, 2014
La fin de la domination coloniale européenne en Amérique latine, en Asie et en Afrique a provoqué... more La fin de la domination coloniale européenne en Amérique latine, en Asie et en Afrique a provoqué des changements manifestes, sans qu'ils soient nécessairement accompagnés d'un renversement de l'ordre établi. Les nouveaux États-nations, pour soutenir leur indépendance et bien marquer leur identité propre, ont mis en place des politiques et des institutions. Dans un monde en constante mutation, quelles en sont les forces et les faiblesses ? Abordant la question de la deuxième phase de décolonisation du Tiers-Monde – un espace bâti par la mise en solidarité des peuples dominés et par le rejet du mythe civilisateur de l'Occident –, les auteurs comparent les divers contextes et décrivent les répercussions concrètes des luttes anti-impérialistes du xxe siècle, tout en mettant au jour leurs convergences et leurs particularités
Reflecting on violence against queer and trans peoples, and the limits of language and translatio... more Reflecting on violence against queer and trans peoples, and the limits of language and translation in understanding queer and trans experiences, this chapter theorizes inescapable incommensurabilities of translating queer, trans, hijra, and other gender non-conforming identities in India. We do so by centring on anti-caste and decolonial theoretical frameworks, especially in view of the caste structures and the past and ongoing colonial and postcolonial processes in the making of the Indian nation-state. Centring on these contradictions and tensions, in this chapter we ask: How are processes of homophobia and transphobia shaped through colonialism and caste structures in postcolonial India? Are words like "queer" and "trans" applicable in the Indian context or are they impositions of the global north? How does brahminical supremacy shape all queer and gender non-conforming identities? If English functions as the imperial language in India, how can the corpus of a...
Feminist Criminology, 2021
Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2020
Journal of Critical Ethnic Studies, 2019
Cultural Studies, 2019
Many scholars argue for an epistemological shift from romanticizing marginalized politics and pra... more Many scholars argue for an epistemological shift from romanticizing marginalized politics and praxis to understanding them within a spectrum of resisting and reproducing normative and dominant power structures. Scholarship on drag demonstrates that drag as a performative practice that seeks to challenge gender and sexual normativities is often not beyond the logics of hegemony and normativity. Drawing on these critiques, this paper contends that drag as an art form can reproduce the racial and colonial logics of the settler state. The paper traces the workings of settler colonialism that shape drag creativity through the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. To do so, I theorize how Raja, the winner of season 3, performed, imitated, and appropriated indigeneity. I argue that Raja’s act as the ‘Native,’ after Lumbee drag queen Stacy Layne Matthews’s elimination from the show, demonstrates how queer people of colour can become complicit in settler colonial processes. The paper is a call to rethink drag creativity beyond assumed transgressive aesthetics, and to critically engage with racial and settler colonial formations.
WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 2014
Jindal Global Law Review, 2013
Talks (Selection) by nishant upadhyay
Edited Books by nishant upadhyay
Book Reviews by nishant upadhyay
Books & Papers by nishant upadhyay
Feminist Studies, Special Issue: Indigenous Feminisms in Settler Contexts, 2019
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Papers by nishant upadhyay
point for much of trans activism in the US. Advocates seeking inclusion highlight how
participation in the military is often a means of socioeconomic mobility and access to
trans-friendly healthcare. Such advocacy hinges upon notions of “good citizenship,” which buttresses US exceptionalism, and concretizes the US empire vis-à-vis militarism. In this paper, we examine a popular documentary, TransMilitary (2018), released in the context of the US–led War on Terror. This documentary serves as a cultural artifact that showcases the deployment of trans service members to Iraq and Afghanistan as a form of inclusion advocacy. Against the backdrop of US imperialism in Asia and Oceania, we extend Asian/American and Pacific Islander feminist analytics to bring into conversation a trans of color abolitionist praxis that centers demilitarization and abolition of the military. In conclusion, we formulate Asian and Pacific Islander trans feminist abolitionist critiques of US trans militarism. A trans abolitionist framework unsettles ideas of liberal inclusion and, instead, centers abolishment of the military for collective trans liberation.
Talks (Selection) by nishant upadhyay
Edited Books by nishant upadhyay
Book Reviews by nishant upadhyay
Books & Papers by nishant upadhyay
point for much of trans activism in the US. Advocates seeking inclusion highlight how
participation in the military is often a means of socioeconomic mobility and access to
trans-friendly healthcare. Such advocacy hinges upon notions of “good citizenship,” which buttresses US exceptionalism, and concretizes the US empire vis-à-vis militarism. In this paper, we examine a popular documentary, TransMilitary (2018), released in the context of the US–led War on Terror. This documentary serves as a cultural artifact that showcases the deployment of trans service members to Iraq and Afghanistan as a form of inclusion advocacy. Against the backdrop of US imperialism in Asia and Oceania, we extend Asian/American and Pacific Islander feminist analytics to bring into conversation a trans of color abolitionist praxis that centers demilitarization and abolition of the military. In conclusion, we formulate Asian and Pacific Islander trans feminist abolitionist critiques of US trans militarism. A trans abolitionist framework unsettles ideas of liberal inclusion and, instead, centers abolishment of the military for collective trans liberation.