Jack Caraves

Current Research Activities

How do gender variance, transgender identity, and sexuality shape the relationship of transgender immigrants to their families, ethnic communities, and the larger transgender community? 

Research Connections to Current Events

My current research interrogates how gender variant and transgender individuals negotiate the power of gender in normative structures in their everyday lives. I examine how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and immigration status to produce unique and highly consequential forms of exclusion in the face of structural barriers, and institutional and interpersonal discrimination. While scholarly interest in transgender identity has exploded with the growth of mainstream media representations of transgender people, little is published about trans Latinx immigrants in the US. Additionally, while scholarly interest in gender, migration, and incorporation into the US has also grown, there continues to be a cissexist and heteronormative focus on Latinx immigrant family dynamics and cycles of migration. Experiences of trans Latinx immigrants remain absent within the fields of immigration studies, trans studies, and sexuality studies, and my research fills this gap. Furthermore, on a societal level while there is more visibility for transgender people, trans people, especially transgender people continue to experience extreme levels of discrimination's, unemployment, displacement, harassment and violence. thus, my work is a critical intervention at a time when trans people of color, and trans immigrants are struggling to be seen as full human beings in our society. 

Personal Connections to Research

I am inspired by queer Chicana and Black feminists. I also inspired by queer immigrant activists who fight for both trans and queer rights, and immigrants rights in this country. My work serves aims to stand in solidarity with those struggles for social justice. 

Keywords

Trans Studies, Latinx Studies, Immigration, LGBT Studies, Queer of Color Critique, Chicana Feminism, pedagogy