Che Gossett | |
|---|---|
 Gossett in 2019 | |
| Born | Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Writer and archivist |
| Known for | Queer and transgender studies |
| Family | Tourmaline (sister) |
Che Gossett is an American writer, scholar, and archivist. [1] They have written extensively on black and trans visibility, black trans aesthetics, [2] [3] [4] capitalism, [5] [6] and queer, trans and black radicalism, resistance and abolition. [7]
Gossett grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, with their twin, Caitlin, and their sibling, activist and filmmaker Tourmaline. [8] [9] Their mother was a union organizer and their father was a Vietnam War veteran and former member of the Memphis-based activist group, The Invaders. [10] [9]
Gossett attended Rafael Hernandez Elementary School and Nativity Preparatory School as a child, and attended River's Country Day High School before ultimately graduating from New Mission High School. As a teen, Gossett participated in youth conferences and HIV peer education. [9]
After graduating from high school, they attended Morehouse College and graduated with their BA in African American studies in 2003. [11] Gossett also received an MAT from Brown University in 2004, and an MA in History from the University in Pennsylvania in 2010. [11] They received their Doctorate in Women's and Gender Studies from Rutgers University in 2021. [12]
From 2014 to 2019, Gossett served as the Community Archivist and Student Coordinator at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. [13] [9] From 2021 to 2024, Gossett was the racial justice postdoctoral scholar at the Initiative for a Just Society, Columbia Law School. [14] From 2022 to 2024 Gossett was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, in the Animal Law and Policy Program. [15] They are currently the Associate Director of the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. [16]
They have published their writing in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, [17] Death and Other Penalties: Continental Philosophers on Prisons and Capital Punishment, [18] Transgender Studies Reader, [19] The Scholar & Feminist Online, [20] Los Angeles Review of Books, [21] and Frieze. [22] [23] Gossett has lectured and performed at The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Museum and A.I.R. Gallery. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]
In 2023, Gossett joined the Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University as a Scholar in Residence and graduate seminar instructor in critical race theory. [29] [16] Che has co-edited a special issue of TSQ journal "Trans in a Time of HIV/AIDS" with Professor Eva Hayward, [30] and their syllabus on trans and non-binary methods for art and art history co-authored with Professor David Getsy won the College Art Journal Award for Distinction. [31]